HOMILETICAL AND PASTORAL 
LECTURES, 




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homiletical and pastoral 
Lectures. 




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WITH A PREFACE BY THE EIGHT REV. 

C. J. ELLICOTT, D.D 

Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. 



NEW YORK : 
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 

714 Broadway. 
1880. 






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Exchange 
10 6 

JUN 16 1942 

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PREFACE, 



r~pHE following Lectures were delivered, at various 

periods during the past five years, before the 

» 
Church Homiletical Society, either in the Chapter 

Room or the Trophy Room of St. Paul's Cathedral. 

The useful Society, before the members of which 

the lectures were delivered, was established" in March 

1874, and owed its origin to a small gathering of 

London clergymen, who met together in the autumn 

of the preceding year to consider the best means of 

raising the standard of preaching, especially among 

younger men. It was felt that the need for such a 

movement was real, and even urgent, but it appeared 

to be very doubtful how that need could best be 

supplied. It was ultimately agreed that a short and 

tentative course of lectures on preaching should 

be delivered. Invitations were sent out to all the 

clergy of London and the suburbs, and to others 



v i PREFACE, 

interested in the subject; the invitations were so 
largely accepted, 7 and the opening lectures so dis- 
tinctly successful, that a permanent Society was 
formed in March 1875, and, shortly afterwards, a 
periodical called the Clergyman s Magazine published 
as the organ of the Society. 

It is from the pages of this magazine that the 
following lectures have been chosen, under the belief 
that their publication, especially in the sequence in 
which they appear in this volume, will be useful not 
only to younger men, but to all who are interested 
in the advance of Practical Homiletical Theology. 
The lectures are arranged and grouped, not in the 
chronological order of their delivery, but as they 
bear upon the clergyman, in his pulpit, his study, his 
parish, and in the general exercise of his ministry ; 
and are designed to place before the student, in a 
simple but instructive form, what may be termed the 
Principles of the most tested Homiletical Teaching, 
The well-known and distinguished names of the 
lecturers will at once prepare the reader for finding, 
what he certainly will find in this volume, a setting 
forth of those principles with clearness and cogency. 
The golden thread that runs through them all is 
elevated instruction, combined with that clear com- 



PREFACE. vii 

mon sense and knowledge of the human heart which 
are both so vitally necessary in any true and effective 
teaching of Homiletics. 

Such a teaching, it is believed, is best communi- 
cated by the co-operation of several different minds ; 
and for this plain reason, that hardly any single 
mind is sufficiently many-sided to set forth the various 
aspects of the answers to the great questions, — How 
most effectually to influence the souls of others by 
the spoken Word, and how most permanently to 
modify life and practice. All experience shows that 
to combine successfully and attractively the humbler 
but yet most necessary teaching that dwells upon the 
form in which the message is to be conveyed, and 
higher teaching which bears upon the inner nature 
and characteristics of the message, is a work which 
one mind can hardly ever adequately perform. It 
is, therefore, in a subject like the present, of no little 
advantage to the student that he will have here 
presented to him the convictions of independent 
minds ; and, it may be rightly added, of minds 
that have been matured by long experience in that 
blessed but difficult art which they are here seeking 
to impart to others. 

It is thus hoped and believed that this volume 



viii PREFACE. 

will prove to be of great and permanent use to all 
who are interested in the vital question of bringing 
the message of the Gospel vitally home to the hearts 
of those committed to their charge. It has been 
said of late — whether rightly or wrongly it may be 
hard to decide — that there is a want of preaching 
power in the general body of our clergy ; and it 
has been contended that, to a great degree, this may 
be attributed to our total neglect of training young 
men designed for the ministry in the difficult art of 
persuasion. There may be much truth in this ; but 
it is ever perilous to the spontaneity of a young and 
earnest soul, that truly loves Christ crucified, to press 
upon it the mere formal rules, however frequently 
verified, of an outward rhetoric, unless it be with the 
constant and reverent recognition of the holy pur- 
pose which the poor rules are designed to subserve. 
This subtle danger, it will be found, is recognised 
and avoided in these Lectures. The rules will be 
found always to be based upon the higher purpose, 
and will further commend themselves to the student 
as bearing the evident tokens of having emerged, 
in the case of most of the lecturers, from a long and 
sympathetic experience. The tone of the whole is 
just that which is most calculated to teach most 



PREFACE. ix 

effectively, — practical, and reverent : practical in the 
advice given, and in the mode of urging it upon the 
student ; and reverent in its perpetual recognition 
of the great end, aim, and purpose, of all Christian 
preaching. 

And this, at a time such as the present, is of great ^ 
moment. In the effort to make the sermon attractive, 
the true elevated conception of the sermon is now 
often utterly lost. The passing incidents of the 
day, wisely perhaps and soberly estimated, only too 
often form the substratum of the modern discourse. 
The text is but the appended motto, illustrated by 
the topic rather than enunciative of the higher 
principle on which the topic is to be treated. All 
is popular, attractive, sensible, and seasonable, — but 
nothing more. The breath of the Inspired Word, 
quickening the mere moral comments into Scriptural 
life, is wanting ; what we hear is but what we might 
have read elsewhere on the pages of a meditative 
essay ; what we derive is but what we might have 
drawn from the communications of a sensible speaker. 
What we seek for, but find not, is that vital message 
which the soul welcomes when it hears it, because it 
feels and knows that that message flows forth from 
the deep fountains of an inward life, and from con- 



x PREFA CE. 

victions which are fruits and manifestations of the 
indwelling Spirit of God. 

This higher view of the sermon has never been 
lost sight of in these pages. The sermon is through- 
out regarded as the message and the proclamation ; 
and though the form and manner of the message is 
rightly dwelt upon with every variety of illustration, 
the subject-matter, it will be found, is ever that which 
receives the greatest and most continued attention. 

More need not be said. The reader is now 
referred to the volume itself, in which all that has 
been here said will be found to be fully substan- 
tiated. They who have written in this volume have 
had only one mind and one purpose — to help, to a 
fuller power of preaching Christ crucified, all those 
to whom is entrusted the ministry of reconciliation. 
This has been the mind and the purpose of these 
Homiletical and Pastoral Lectures. On this pur- 
pose, and on the manner in which the purpose is 
here carried out, may God the Holy Ghost vouchsafe 
to have sent down His helping and awakening 

blessing. 

C. J. Gloucester and Bristol. 

Gloucester, 

October 25^, 1879. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface •...••. v 

By the Right Reverend Charles John Ellicott, D.D., 
Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. 

I. 

The Preparation of a Sermon ... 3 

By the Right Reverend Anthony Wilson Thorold, 
D.*D., Lord Bishop of Rochester. 

II. 

The End or Object of a Sermon . . .27 

By the Right Reverend Vincent William Ryan, D.D., 
(late Bishop of Mauritius,) Archdeacon of Craven, and 
Vicar of Bradford, Yorkshire. 

III. 

Homely Hints on Preaching . . . .49 

By the Very Reverend John Saul Howson, D.D., Dean 
of Chester, and Chaplain to the Bishop of Winchester. 

IV. 

On the Emotions in Preaching . . .81 

By the Right Honourable and M ;st Reverend William 
Thomson, D.D., Lord Archbishop of York. 

V. 

What Constitutes a Plain Sermon . • .105 

By the Right Reverend Harvey Goodwin, D.D., Lord 
Bishop of Carlisle. 

xi 



Xlt CONTENTS. 

VI. 

PAGE 

The Preparation of Sermons for Village Con- 
gregations , . . . . .135 

By the Reverend Charles Abel Heurtley, D.D., Canon 
of Christ Church, Margaret Professor of Divinity, 
Oxford. 

VII. 

The Preacher's Gifts . . # , .161 

By the Reverend Edward Garbett, M.A., Honorary 
Canon of Winchester Cathedral, Rector of Barcombe, 
Sussex. 

VIII. 

Study in its Bearing on Preaching . .189 

By the Reverend Alfred Barry, D.D., D.C.L., Canon 
of Worcester Cathedral, Principal of King's College, 
London, and Honorary Chaplain to the Queen. 

IX. 

The Study of Holy Scripture with a view to 

the Preparation of Sermons . . . 217 

By the Very Reverend John James Stewart Perowne, 
D.D., Honorary Chaplain to the Queen, Dean of Peter- 
borough. 

X. 

Texts : their Interpretation, Misinterpreta- 
tion, and Misapplication .... 245 

By the Venerable Thomas Thomason Perowne, B.D., 
Archdeacon of Norwich, Examining Chaplain to the 
Bishop of Norwich, and Rector of Redenhall, Norfolk. 

XI. 

Prophecy in its Relation to Preaching . . 267 

By the Very Reverend William Robert Fremantle, 
D.D., Dean of Ripon. 



CONTENTS. xni 

xn. 

PAGE 

Parish Work in its Relation to the Cure of 

Souls . . . • . . .291 

By the Reverend Thomas Dehaney Bernard, M.A., 
Canon of Wells, and Rector of Walcot, Bath. 

XIII. 

Pastoral Visitation . . . . .311 

By the Reverend William Cadman, M.A., Prebendary of 
St. Paul's, and Rector of Holy Trinity, Marylebone 
London. 

XIV. 

Pastoral Dealing with Individuals • . 335 

By the Reverend William Walsham How, M.A., 
Honorary Canon of St. Asaph, Rural Dean, Rector 
of Whittington, Salop, and Examining Chaplain to 
the Bishop of Lichfield. 

XV. 

Cottage Lectures . 357 

By the Right Reverend William Pakenham Walsh, 
D.D., Bishop of Ossory, Ferns, and Leighlin. 

XVI. 

How to Reach Working Men . . .381 

By the Reverend Thomas Mosse Macdonald, M.A., 
Prebendary of Lincoln, and Rector of Kersal Moor, 
Manchester. 

XVII. 

Parochial Temperance Work as part of the 
Cure of Souls . . . . . 425 

By the Reverend Henry John Ellison, M.A., Honorary 
Canon of Christ Church, Rector of Ha^ely, Oxon, and 
Honorary Chaplain to the Queen. 



xiv CONTENTS. 

XVIII. 

PAGB 

The Temptations of the Ministry . . -457 

By the Right Reverend Jonathan Holt Titcomb, D.D., 
Lord Bishop of Rangoon. 

XIX. 

The Responsibilities of the Ministry . . 473 

By the Reverend Francis Pigou, D.D., Rural Dean, Vicar 
of Halifax, Yorkshire, and Chaplain in Ordinary to the 
Queen. 

XX. 

The Results of the Ministry . . .505 

By the Reverend Edward Hoare, M.A„ Honorary Canon 
of Canterbury, and Vicar of Trinity Church, Tunbridge 
Wells, Kent. 



CONTRIBUTORS. 



The Right Hon. and Most Rev. W. THOMSON, D.D., Lord 

Archbishop of York. 
The Right Rev. H. GOODWIN, D.D., Lord Bishop of Carlisle. 
The Right Rev. A. W. THOROLD, D.D., Lord Bishop of Rochester. 
The Right Rev. J. H. TITCOMB, D.D., Lord Bishop of Rangoon. 
The Right Rev. W. P. WALSH, D.D., Bishop of Ossory. 
The Right Rev. V. W. RYAN, D.D., late Bishop of Mauritius. 
The Very Rev. W. R. FREMANTLE, D.D., Dean of Ripon. 
The Very Rev. J. J. S. PEROWNE, D.D., Dean of Peterborough. 
The Very Rev. J. S. HOWSON, D.D., Dean of Chester. 
The Rev. C. A. HEURTLEY, D.D., Canon of Christ Church. 
The Ven. T. T. PEROWNE, B.D., Archdeacon of Norwich. 
The Rev. F. PIGOU, D.D., Rural Dean, Vicar of Halifax. 
The Rev. A. BARRY, D.D., D.C.L., Canon of Worcester Cathedral. 
The Rev. E. GARBETT, M.A., Honorary Canon of Winchester. 
The Rev. T. D. BERNARD, M.A., Canon of Wells. 
The Rev. E. HO A RE, M.A., Honorary Canon of Canterbury. 
The Rev. H. J. ELLISON, M.A., Honorary Canon of Christ Church. 
The Rrj. W. W. HOW, M.A., Honorary Canon of St. Asaph. 
The Rev. T. M. MACDONALD, M.A., Prebendary of Lincoln. 
The Rev. W. C ADMAN, M.A., Prebendary of St. PauPs. 

XV 



t ^nignmtwti of » Sermam 

BY THE RIGHT REVEREND ANTHONY W. THOROLD, D.D^ 
LORD BISHOP OtP ROCHESTER. 



L 

THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 

WHAT is a sermon? Perhaps as complex a 
production as anything you can well name. 
It may be defined as the truth of God filtered through 
the lips of man ; yet this is but a single glimpse of 
a many-sided whole. Thought and words, voice and 
look, repose and action, the spoils of the dead, and 
the research of the living, the thinker's reasoning, 
and the sufferer's pathos ; yesterday's burdens, that 
sent you to your knees for personal consolation; 
to-morrow's cares, which only your own faith in 
God can help you calmly and bravely to meet ; the 
totality of your previous life colouring and impreg- 
nating your present consciousness ; the ever-changing 
lights and shades that flit across a man's spirit in a 
week of actual life. What the man is, the sermon 
will be ; but the man is what his previous life has 
made him. If the subjective element in the sermon 
too much dominates over the objective, the preacher 
will run the risk of not preaching Christ Jesus the 
Lord, but himself; while if the objective element 



4 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. I. 

chills or crushes the subjective, then it is no longer 
a man speaking to his fellows, one of like passions 
with them, but either a sort of patent preaching 
machine coldly emitting its regular but metallic 
utterances, or a kind of self-made hierarch haranguing 
as from an upper world mortals with whom he has 
little in common. 

In the preparation of a sermon, from the first 
rough casting of it in the preacher's mind to the 
moment when he stands up in the congregation to 
deliver it in God's name, there are various steps or 
stages, some of which, as experience matures, may be 
judiciously compressed, or even safely omitted, but 
which a young preacher in the early years of his 
apprenticeship would be most imprudent to neglect. 

Their proper order, in perhaps their exact com- 
pleteness, is as follows : — 

The choice of the subject and the text. 

The first rough casting of the general outline, to 
be followed by a careful and elaborate analysis. 

The gathering of materials. 

The fermentation of the subject in the preacher's 
mind. 

The composition of the sermon. 

The criticism of it, and, where necessary, the alter- 
ing, adding to, or recasting of it. 

The final preparation for the pulpit, in the private 
recitation of the sermon, in the devout prepa- 



Lect. I.] THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 5 

ration of the spirit and heart for delivering it, 
and in the solemn commending of it to God. 
I. The first two points to settle about a sermon 
are these : what it is you want to say, and how you 
mean to say it. Much precious time is often lost by 
hopelessly drifting about in search of a subject at the 
last moment ; and a good way of preventing this is 
to take advantage of leisure, when the mind is fertile 
in suggesting subjects, or the judgment felicitous in 
selecting texts, for writing them down in a book for 
the purpose, to be referred to as they are wanted. A 
clergyman known to me often has his subjects and 
texts ready for six months in advance ; and though 
unforeseen circumstances will occasionally modify 
our plans, it is far less trouble to change them, if 
necessary, for something else more immediately suit- 
able, than perhaps in a fagged or exhausted moment 
to be blindly hunting about for a good subject, at 
the double risk of destroying the symmetry of our 
previous teaching, and of our choosing some subject 
in a hurry, not because it is the best we can find, 
but from sheer despair of a better. When you know 
what you want to say, the next thing to settle is, 
how to say it. There are two methods of preaching : 
one the expository, the other the textual ; and while 
the former has the immense advantage of compelling 
the continuous study of a large portion of the Bible, 
the latter perhaps finds most favour with preachers, 



6 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. I. 

as tending more to narrow the focus, condense the 
matter, compel the analysis, and concentrate the 
force, of the sermon. About your text let me press 
these few cautions : Never use the Word of God as a 
mere motto. Be quite sure that the text really 
means what you suppose it to mean ; and to ascer- 
tain this, carefully examine it in the original. As 
soon as you have written it at the beginning of your 
sermon, don't run away from it as fast as you can, 
as if it had frightened you. Let the object of your 
sermon be to bring God's mind out of your text, to 
show to your people, rather than to bring your own 
mind to it, to display yourself. On the happy choice 
of a text, more depends than we suppose, both for 
the quality of a sermon and the attention of the 
people. Begin well, and you are half-way to the end. 
II. The subject chosen, and the text found for 
it, the next point for consideration is to shape into 
some rough outline the ideas that may be supposed 
to be teeming in the preachers brain, impatient for 
a speedy birth. Quite the first thing clearly and 
inflexibly to settle is the main or central thought 
which is to regulate, point, colour, and control the 
whole; to be the light of the body, in at once 
expounding and illuminating . the substance that 
composes it ; the direct line between a fixed point 
of departure and another of arrival, on which, as 
straight as may be, through the spacious tracts of 



Lect. L] the preparation of A SERMON. 7 

Christian theology, the journey of the preacher is 
to lie. If the true art of a sermon is to make it 
the natural, easy, and complete development of 
but one idea, then the best result of a sermon is 
that that one idea should be so persistently and 
ingeniously and attractively beaten into the mind 
of the hearers, that every one comes away perfectly 
clear as to what the preacher wanted to say, and 
how far he succeeded in saying it. A young 
preacher, who can hardly take too much pains in 
his first efforts at sermon-writing, will do well, for 
at least a year or two, to make two analyses before 
he sits down finally to write. The first need only 
be very brief and rough, on a slate or piece of 
waste paper, with the main thought of his sermon 
written at the top of the page in a large clear 
hand. He will thus keep distinctly before him the 
subject he has to think out, and the place to which 
he is travelling. Beneath this let him put down 
in half a dozen lines any thoughts that occur to 
him, just as they occur; and if at this first period 
of incubation he can succeed in jotting down some- 
thing with which to begin his sermon, and a word, 
say, of application for the end, he will have fairly 
broken ground and seen daylight. Then, say the 
next day, the fuller analysis should follow. An 
architect has no doubt done something when he 
has secured his site, chosen his aspect, settled on 



8 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. I. 

the dimensions of the house, and dug his founda- 
tions ; but even before he collects his materials, or 
prepares his estimates, he feels it prudent to settle 
on the number and size of the rooms, the passages 
that lead to them, the windows that let in the 
light, the doors that admit the inmates. Thus, 
this first skeleton, sufficient as it will be and ought 
to be for preachers of experience, must by no 
means be treated as a sufficient ground-plan for 
beginners. A book should be kept solely for the 
fuller analyses, numbered and indexed at the end, 
with text and subject for convenient reference ; and 
here the sketch already made should be carefully 
and fully developed. On the mooted point of the 
divisions of a sermon it is not possible to linger. 
Great authorities differ here, as widely as they are 
occasionally known to differ elsewhere ; and Fenelon, 
as some will remember, is very strong against them, 
observing of them that "sometimes they are not 
natural ; that they make the sermon dry and weari- 
some ; that there is no more any real unity, but 
two or three different discourses linked together 
by a mere arbitrary connexion ; ancient orators did 
not adopt them ; the fathers knew nothing of them ; 
and that they are a modern invention derived from 
the schoolmen." It is unwise, however, to try to 
fetter individual discretion by any universal or 
arbitrary rules. The quality of a man's own mind ; 



Lect. I.] THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 9 

the nature of the congregation to which he ministers ; 
the fixed habits of perhaps many years ; the not 
unreasonable prejudices of hearers in favour of a 
plan which at any rate gives landmarks, and helps 
memory, are all so many factors in the formation 
of a practice, about which everybody at last does 
exactly as he chooses, and which practically justifies 
itself wherever it commands success. In some things, 
however, we shall all concur: that there should be 
a definite and orderly arrangement pervading the 
sermon ; that it is usually inexpedient to alarm the 
congregation by a too extensive and fatiguing pros- 
pect of the road in front of them ; that everything 
should be kept in its proper place ; that " the sermon 
ought to go on growing, and the hearer be made to 
feel more and more the weight of truth." 

Sermons, after all, as we have hinted already, like 
everything else, are best tested by their results ; and 
so long as they instruct, affect, impress, and convert, 
they cannot be far wrong. 

The second analysis completed, with its head, 
trunk, extremities, and vertebrae, a vast relief is felt in 
the completed decision of the mind as to the main 
features of the scheme ; and though much yet remains 
to be done, the mind can now safely concentrate 
itself on one fixed centre, and will easily, and almost 
unconsciously, assimilate to its own powers of produc- 
tion whatever suitable to its purpose comes in its way. 



io HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. I. 

III. Next in order comes the gathering and the 
arranging of the materials, about which I presume 
to offer a few practical suggestions. In the first 
place, make a painstaking and conscientious use of 
your own resources. Pick your own brains before 
you pick other men's. It is honest. It is industrious. 
It will help you to understand where it is you most 
w 7 ant help, whether in clearness or argument, or 
matter or illustration. It will go to make the sermon 
in a great measure your own ; at any rate the best 
part of it, and all that is fairly possible. Secondly, 
collect and compare the Scriptures on the point, 
and weave them into your subject with judgment and 
discrimination. Fenelon has some very useful re- 
marks here. After observing that " the most essential 
quality of a preacher is to be instructive," he proceeds, 
" But we must be well instructed ourselves to be able 
to instruct others, and we must perfectly understand 
the expressions of Scripture, as well as know exactly 
the capacity of the minds to which we speak. Some 
sermons are beautiful reasonings upon religion, and 
not religion itself. It is much easier to describe the 
disorders of the world than to explain solidly the 
fundamentals of Christianity, which means a serious 
and profound study of Scripture. Scripture is often 
quoted suddenly, or for good taste, or for ornament. 
Then it is no more the word of God, but the invention 
of men. If preachers would study Scripture more, 



Lect. I.] the PREPARATION OF A SERMON. ii 

they would always have, without difficulty, a great 
number of new and grand things to say. It is 
deplorable to see how this treasure is neglected by 
those who have it every day in their hands." Thirdly, 
it is a good plan to read any sermons on the sub- 
ject you have by you, if only you are careful not to 
use them for the entire treatment of the passage, 
but simply for points and emendations, as the setting 
of your sermon, not the substance of it. Yet a 
better way still is to read one good sermon daily 
— a rule which is easily possible in the holidays, and 
might, with a little resolution, be quite practicable 
for some of us at other times. 

There are, however, three excusable, yet serious, 
perils in this part of our subject, against which the 
young composer should be emphatically warned. 
I. He should avoid anything like padding, or the 
inserting of what, by a far too indulgent euphony, is 
called matter, but is really a sort of watery pap. 
All padding should be treated like the splendid 
adjectives or eloquent bursts in a sermon — carefully 
excised with a sharp pen. 2. Let him eschew the 
very common fear of not having enough to say, and 
so spinning out one part, which is usually the first 
and perhaps the least important, to the curtailment, 
if not the discomfiture, of the rest. The subject is 
sure to unfold itself as you get further into it ; and, 
like one of nature's silkworms, will spin its own 



12 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. L 

cocoon. 3. Remember also that there is such a 
fault — and especially with painstaking men — as over- 
crowding a sermon with too much matter : a fault 
which, if it may be to some degree aggravated by 
the practice we are now considering, of accumulating 
materials for our sermons, has its very easy remedy 
and pleasant reward in our leaving what we do 
not immediately want for other sermons to follow. 
While on the one hand the sermon must not be text 
and water, dishonouring the Master to whom it is 
offered, and cheating the people to whom it is spoken, 
so on the other hand we must not make it what 
travellers in North America recognise under the 
name of pemmican ; since what is impossible of 
digestion is practically of as little use to the ordinary 
mind as that which gives it nothing to digest. 

IV. The sermon cast into shape, the materials 
collected and sifted, the point and aim of the dis- 
course clearly seized and firmly grasped, it is well, 
where there is opportunity for it, to leave an interval 
of a day or two before the final composition is made. 
This delay is valuable in aiding what is one of the 
most important though insufficiently recognised pro- 
cesses in the full maturing of the subject, and is what 
may roughly be defined as the simmering and fer- 
mentation of it in the preacher's mind ; for hereby 
the memory, through a sort of magnetic action 
attracts to itself any particles of useful matter laid 



Lect. I.] THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 13 

up in its secret storehouse ; and the imagination, 
quite one of the most valuable of the mental faculties 
for sermon-writing, has time to illuminate and almost 
reconstruct it with an atmosphere and colouring of 
its own ; and the understanding can deliberately 
adjust its proportions, construct its arguments, and 
draw its conclusions. 

Not, however, that we are never to be thinking of 
anything else but the sermon. In a certain sense, 
we shall do well totally to forget it ; and too great 
concentration of aim on only one of our manifold 
functions might easily defeat its own object, while 
compelling the fatal neglect of all the rest. But 
what I want to press — even at the risk of not at 
once carrying all along with me — is this : that the . 
recreations as well as the duties of our life may, if 
rightly used and applied, be even a direct help in 
the instruction of our people ; and that a quick and 
watchful intelligence may, without strain or effort, 
easily and almost unconsciously extract from the 
society, or the literature, or the fine arts of. our 
secular life, edification for the Church of God. 

Does any one ask, for instance, what on earth 
pictures can have to do with sermon-making ? I 
answer (may I say from long experience ?), a very 
great deal indeed, since many of the qualities that 
go to make an artist, or that help us to appreciate 
his art, are invaluable aids to a sermon. The way 



H HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. I. 

for instance, in which a great picture strikes the 
imagination with the breadth and width of the world, 
the infinite varieties of human life and interest, the 
power and wisdom of God in nature, the picturesque 
details of great events in history, which the genius of 
a poet, who has first thought and then worked it out 
on the canvas, helps you almost for the first time to 
appreciate, and ever afterwards to retain, — all go to 
quicken the sensibilities, to open the pores of the 
entire spiritual being to new and stirring impressions, 
to set us thinking and feeling, to transport us, at least 
for a little while, from the narrow and shallow eddies 
of our own limited experience, to watch the billows 
as they roll in from the tempests of the universe to 
break on the worlds shore. 

Or do any ask what going into society, or dining 
out in company, can possibly have to do with the 
preparation of a message from God ? None of us, 
indeed, are in danger of supposing that society can 
be regenerated by dining with it ; and as to the 
expediency of such mixing with society, each man 
must be persuaded for himself in his own mind^ 
But assuming that we do it, then, I say, at least 
two things may accrue from it, and neither of them 
of trifling importance in testing our reality and in 
widening our experience. 

You go, let us say, fresh from your study and your 
Bible, into the company of intelligent, refined, and 



Lect. I.] THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 15 

pleasant persons, many of whom will be strangers to 
you, and of whose previous life and personal religion 
you are totally ignorant. You pass a few hours there, 
and then you go back to your unfinished sermon. 
Well, quite apart from the wholesome bracing influ- 
ence that a humble and sensible man may be glad 
indirectly to derive from those who, if in some things 
his inferiors, will be in some his equals, perhaps in 
many his masters, may you not be provoked thereby 
to ask yourself, How far do I really and honestly feel 
all this that I am now writing to be suitable and 
necessary and true ? Is it as good for the rich as 
for the poor ? Is it as essential for the respectable 
as for the vicious ? Have I had the courage to say 
it privately, as well as to preach it publicly ? How 
much in my sermons is a mere conventional and 
artificial theology ? How much of it is the living 
truth of the living God burning like a fire in my 
heart ? Coming out of the crowded church, where 
sedate faces and respectful ears at least appear to 
listen to me, to meet the same people, now their real 
selves, either in the fortress of their own homes or 
the neutral ground of their neighbours', do I find my 
Master's love for single souls in any wise charac- 
terising my private and social intercourse ? do I feel 
that, as a fisher of men, I must angle as well as net — 
that even when I net, as often as I can, I must bring 
my fish to land ? As for secular reading (in which I 



16 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. I. 

include, of course, the reading of poetry and fiction, 
as well as the journals), the great justification of it, 
and use from it, is surely this : that in the easiest and 
quickest and least perilous way possible it brings us 
into some mental contact with those aspects of secu- 
lar life with which we have no other opportunity of 
becoming actually and personally acquainted, but 
which not in some way to know, and to meet, in- 
volves a great loss to our knowledge of human nature 
and a serious diminution of our usefulness as the 
ambassadors of Christ. Surely, then, it is no strain 
on common sense, no flight too lofty for practical 
men to reach after, to entertain the hope that each 
day's common life, with its breaks and changes, its 
small details, its new impressions, may be a powerful 
though subtle influence, both on the tone of our 
character and the substance of our sermons. God 
speaks to us by a thousand voices, works in us by 
a thousand processes. The matter must first be in 
us before it can go out of us. But if Holy Scripture 
is our subject, and God the Holy Ghost our Teacher, 
culture makes the ink, and life guides the pen. 

V. The actual composition of the sermon is hardly 
within my province. It is a subject to itself, and 
would soon tempt us beyond our proper limits. But 
for completeness' sake I venture to suggest, even 
here, a few practical considerations and important 
cautions. Clearly there can be no universal or 



Lect. I.] THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 17 

arbitrary rule as to length of time desirable for 
composition ; nor is there much use in examining 
the comparative advantages of finishing it off at a 
single sitting, or of humouring the languor of a tired 
head at the risk of the Nemesis of to-morrow's regret 
over the unfinished task of to-day. 

The human mind is not a grinding machine, but a 
living organ ; not only very different in different men, 
but different in the same man on different days. If 
you over-drive it, it may take its revenge on you, 
either by striking altogether, or by turning out such 
bad work that you are ashamed to own it. Yet 
sometimes it is but sluggishness, that only needs 
pushing, instantly to obey the spur. . Some heads, 
again, always work slowly, others rapidly ; some best 
without food at all, or only of the slightest kind ; 
others, like Christopher North, need the support of 
plentiful food at frequent intervals. It is not always 
the quickest work that saves time in the , end ; in 
sermon writing, as in other things, the hare is often 
beaten by the tortoise. Sometimes, however, slow 
composition means that the head is out of gear ; and 
then what is slow is bad. This, however, is beyond 
dispute : that certain parts of a sermon are best 
worked off at once, and not left unfinished ; also that 
when the head is tired, or time insufficient for com- 
pleting it properly, conscience as well as judgment 
will suggest the postponement of the task, The 

2 



18 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. I. 

mental heat and the moral sympathy with the sub- 
ject will all come back when you sit down to it next 
day, if only you are careful to read through what has 
been written before you begin again. As to inter- 
ruptions, no one likes them at the moment, but 
they often hinder us much less than they threaten 
to do. 

Some sorts of intrusion we must firmly resist, in the 
interest of our people quite as much as our own, or 
our sermons will be but scrappy and ill-joined frag- 
ments, rather than the consolidated arrangement of 
connected truth. But there is now and then an y 
interruption which it would be peevishness to resent, 
or a sin to refuse; and many a clergyman, summoned 
from his Bible or his manuscript to a sick or dying 
bed, and for a moment tempted to wish that his 
sermon could have been finished before his visit was 
paid, goes and does his duty, serves his God, and 
does not please himself, to come back amply re- 
warded, with a glow in his heart and a spring in his 
mind, that help him to point with a new moral, or 
touch with a fresh pathos, or conclude with a solemn 
monition, the sermon which an hour before he put 
away with a half-vexed regret. 

VI. The sermon written and laid aside, the pre- 
paration of it may not unreasonably be supposed 
to be completed likewise ; and so it would be, if 
all of us wrote our sermons just as they should be 



Lect. I.] THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. j 9 

delivered, or if the preparation included only the 
mechanical and intellectual labour. 

But may I presume to press on my younget 
brethren— to whom, indeed, all through this paper, I 
have intended exclusively to address myself — the 
expediency of some interval between the composition 
of the sermon and its actual delivery ? Not to be 
pedantically accurate in the chronology of the sub- 
ject, 1 would suggest that the text be chosen on the 
Sunday ; the thinking out the plan, collecting the 
materials, comparing the Scriptures, and completing 
the analysis, no later than Tuesday; the writing out 
the sermon on Thursday, and then one clear day will 
be left for the absolute and even intentional oblivion 
of its very existence, except a secret sense of satis- 
faction at the thought of the work being done. On 
Saturday the sermon is brought out for its final 
criticism by the author of its birth ; and let us freely 
confess that it is a moment quite as often of dis- 
appointment as of self-elation, when the mind, 
occupied by a multitude of other things in the 
interval, approaches its own offspring with the cold- 
ness of a stranger, and yet the sensitiveness of a parent. 

This final criticism, however, is of the greatest 
possible use, both to the sermon and to its author. 
Let no self-love blunt the keenness of the knife that 
prunes the too luxuriant imagery, or deprecate the 
severe accuracy with which the reason weighs in 



20 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. I. 

honest balances the aptness of the quotations, the 
proportions of the treatment, the purity of the style, 
the cogency of the argument. Perhaps no hour over 
all the sermon can be more usefully, ought to be 
more conscientiously, employed than this one. The 
searching question will often cross us, u Is this to 
glorify God, or to please man ? " And if it is our 
sincere desire to give our Divine Master the very 
best we have to give Him, we shall feel neither 
to waste our time nor grudge our pains. Soon, 
however — let us confess — the heart grows secretly 
happier as we thus present it and recast it before 
God. We no longer despair of making something 
of it, when here an added sentence gives light or 
freshness, there a felicitous quotation gives wings 
to a heavy page or transparency to a dull one. 
Perhaps even to the last moment we may go on 
touching here and adding there, to make it quite 
our best And we remember the answer made to 
Demosthenes, when he complained that though he 
liked his new oration well enough the first time of 
reading it, he liked it less the second time, and not 
at all the third : " True, Demosthenes ; but then the 
Athenians will hear it only once." 

VII. In the brief interval between the final criti- 
cism and the actual delivery there are still three 
important processes that complete the preparation 
of the sermon. They are the mechanical, the per- 



Lect. I.] THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 21 

sonal, and the spiritual. With a few words on each 
of these points my task will be done. 

By mechanical preparation I do not understand 
the standing before a glass in an oratorical attitude, 
but I do mean the carefully reading aloud the sermon 
in our own study by ourselves, that we may see how 
to modulate the voice — where to change the tone, 
where to be slow, and where rapid ; the time that it 
is likely to take in preaching ; and, in a right use of 
the word, the action that will aid the delivery, and 
so point the truth. By personal preparation I mean 
two things. One of them that physical preparedness 
for the sermon, about which some of our junior 
brethren may for the present afford to be indifferent, 
but which to older men is of great consequence 
indeed, — that which results from a good night's rest, 
a feeling of health and vigour, and last but not least, 
a careful diet, about which the greatest of Scotch 
preachers is reported to have said that there was 
hardly anything he would not give to the man who 
would tell him what to eat on Saturday. The other 
is a mental and moral preparedness, both in knowing 
the sermon well, through having thoroughly mastered 
it in all its details, and also in an instinct of good- 
humoured sense about it, that having done your best, 
you leave it with God and your people, discarding 
with a sort of sturdy contempt the small and fidgety 
vanity of wondering if it will be admired. 



22 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. I. 

Most of all, there is the spiritual preparation 
whereby our own soul is stirred and helped to utter 
it, and intercession made for the people, that into 
docile and prepared hearts the good seed may fall. 
First preach it to your own conscience, on your knees 
before God, humbly, earnestly asking Him to give 
you a blessing that you may pass on to your people ; 
to slay in you the sins you are rebuking in them ; to 
nourish and strengthen in your own spirit the good 
work of His grace. To be real — real — real: this is our 
first duty. Blessed is he who has never come home 
smitten with a profound depression at having laid 
burdens on his brethren that he is conscious of not 
even trying to bear himself. Then plead with God 
that He will forgive it, and accept it, and use it in 
His own way and measure for the glorifying of His 
name and for the exalting of His Christ, filling you 
with His grace, anointing your heart with power, 
giving you the sense of His fellowship with you and 
His presence in you, when you openly stand up 
before the people to speak* as the oracles of God. 

And then go like men to your flock, with faith 
that it is God's word ? and He will take care of it ; 
with hope that sooner or later it shall magnify Him, 
whether as sowing what some one else shall reap, or 
as harvesting what some one else has sown ; with 
love, tender and strong and brimming over, to Him 
who has so marvellously honoured you in making 



Lect. I.] THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 23 

you the mouthpiece of His Word to the sheep He 
loves, whom, through your lips, the Good Shepherd 
deigns to feed. For if we are indeed fellow-workers 
with God, there are but two things we have to do in 
the matter : to take great pains, and to expect great 
results. " If the preparation of the heart and the 
answer of the tongue are both from God . . . every 
man shall receive his own reward according to his 
own labour." 



CJxe dfmb or #bjeti of k Bmwon. 

BY THE RIGHT REVEREND VINCENT WILLIAM RYAN, D.D., 
LATE BISHOP OF MAURITIUS, ARCHDEACON OF CRAVEN, 
AND VICAR OF BRADFORD, YORKSHIRE. 



II. 

THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON, 

SHALL endeavour to deal with my subject 
•*• chiefly in a practical manner, — that is to say, 
not merely to regard the question as a theme for 
an essay, bringing out general principles, but rather 
to colour the answer with remarks drawn from 
the character of the times, and from the facts of 
experience. 

We all agree that the present times are some of 
the most critical of any through which the Church 
and the world have ever passed. They are the 
consequence and the result of some of the most 
stupendous events happening at the close of the 
last century and the first half of this, which have 
ever taken place in the history of mankind. In 
themselves they are stamped with the impress of 
deeds, both of a beneficent and a destructive nature, 
which can never be forgotten, and they are evidently 
preparing the way for changes of the most momen- 
tous character for succeeding generations. Out of 
these critical circumstances arise special claims upon 



28 H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. II. 

the preachers of the Word of God to adapt their / 
sermons to the experiences through which the men 
of their day are passing, — not, indeed, to alter one 
iota of the message, but so to deliver it as to secure 
the attention of those to whom they preach, and to 
commend its gracious offers to their acceptance. 

The complaint of Chrysostom as to the difficulty 
of carrying out the aim and object of ministers of 
the Word is very applicable now. He says that 
it may be a difficult matter to keep those already 
within their charge, or to make the addition of 
others who had not yet come over ; and he shows 
that the remedy is to be sought in those who preach 
the Word. " Men are required," he says, " receiving 
power from the Holy Ghost, showing fervent alacrity 
of mind, readiness to endure privation and peril, — 
men of administrative power and wisdom, blame- 
less in life, apt to teach, and attributive of every- 
thing to the grace of God."* 

And as requirements like these are never out of 
date for the men who preach sermons, so we have 
certain rules given by St. Augustine as to the aim 
and object of a sermon, which lie at the root of 
all preaching in general, and are fully adapted to 
special times and circumstances. I would recom- 
mend young composers of sermons especially to 
bear his words in mind : " Orator Christianus debet 
* " Homil. in Joan." 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON. 29 

docere, delectare, flectere : docere ut instruat, delec- 
tare ut teneat, flectere ut vincat ; " and then the 
threefold result will follow, logically attached to 
the threefold work, the threefold aim: " Docere ut 
instruat, ut audiatur intelligenter ; delectare ut 
teneat, ut audiatur libenter ; flectere ut vincat, ut 
audiatur obedienter."* 

A sermon which conveys instruction to the mind, 
which arrests the attention, and is calculated to 
bend the will, has in it all the elements of ex- 
cellence. I need not say that it requires pains- 
taking study to provide the instruction; careful 
preparation, as well as fervour of spirit, to secure 
the attention ; and a very definite object in view 
as the practical result aimed at, as well as earnest 
and continual prayer for the blessing of the Holy 
Spirit of God. The first sermon preached in the 
Christian Church contains all these elements of 
excellence — the teaching, the interesting the atten- 
tion, the practical application; and so "men and 
brethren," the loving address of the preacher, be- 
came the " men and brethren v in the penitent 
question of the hearers : " Men and brethren, what 
shall we do ? " 

Now, based on these leading rules, arising as they 
do out of the deeply rooted principles on which the 

* " De Docti Christiana," iv. 12, 17, quoting and adapting 
Cicero, " De Oratore," 



30 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. II. 

effect of speaking to multitudes depends, there is a 
special adaptation of the course we have to pursue, 
which may, perhaps, be expressed thus : — 

A sermon, to be effective — 

i. Must meet the thoughts which occupy men's 
minds. 

2. Must deal with the sorrows of their actual 

experience. 

3. Must commend itself to their consciences as in 

the sight of God in those things which con- 
cern sin and salvation. 
I. A sermon must meet the thoughts which occupy 
men's minds. A bad effect is produced when such 
thoughts find a response only in the leading articles 
of newspapers, or in reviews and periodicals. But 
when he who dispenses the Word of God shows that 
he is acquainted with the doubts and difficulties of 
his hearers, and is able to solve or to remove them, 
he is at once placed on a high vantage ground for 
commending the truth which he has to deliver. Let 
us take for an instance the subject of modern pro- 
gress. It is in all men's minds — on all men's lips— 
and is often connected with serious misgivings as to 
the claims which a religion professing to have made 
no progress in the matter of its teaching can have 
upon the attention and obedience of men of the 
nineteenth century. If the preacher goes carefully 
into this subject, analyses it accurately, and draws 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON. 31 

distinctions which cannot be gainsayed, it will be easy 
for him to secure the thoughtful attention of his 
hearers while he gratefully acknowledges all that 
modern progress has really effected, but shows that 
its results touch only what is outward and superficial ; 
that while, for instance, the art of printing has vastly 
multiplied the power of producing copies of a poem, 
the power of making poetry has not been increased ; 
that while the electric current sends tidings from re- 
mote regions in as many hours almost as it formerly 
took months, yet the essential character of the tidings 
is the same that it ever was — touching the same 
human feelings as before; that while Science, to use 
the eloquent words of one of her greatest sons, " can 
triumph over the waves of the sea, she has no secret 
for calming the disquietudes of ambition ;" and there- 
fore, because the deep cravings of the heart and the 
trials of the soul remain the same, we need the same 
Gospel which was wanted by our fathers, and those 
of the old time before them. It seems to me that 
those who feel that we can meet their thoughts about 
such matters are likely to listen more confidingly and 
reverently when we speak to them of " Jesus Christ, 
the same yesterday and to-day and for ever." 

Then, to take a much lower kind of audience 
(intellectually speaking), it will generally be found 
that every little community has its own prejudices 
— preconceived notions to which it clings as to 



32 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. II. 

fundamental axioms — unless pains are taken to 
meet these thoughts. For instance, a preacher of 
the Word finds himself in a ship with seventy or 
eighty sailors. They are likely to be together for 
many weeks, and he will have many opportunities 
of addressing them. Now, he will find there are 
two lines of thought in those men's minds, which 
oppose a serious hindrance to his ministrations 
amongst them ; and although one of them will 
raise a smile, still I mention it because I have on 
more than one occasion witnessed the good effect 
of meeting it, and believe nothing in the way of 
hindrance is too insignificant to engage the attention 
of those who labour to win souls. The prejudice to 
which I refer is connected with the story of Jonah, 
and it works strongly in many sailors' minds, until 
it is disarmed, which is easily done by the simple 
remark, "It is quite true that Jonah brought the 
ship in which he sailed into trouble ; but the reason 
was, that he was running away from his duty ; but 
I am going to do mine." 

Another prejudice is, that religion does very well 
for people in other callings, but does not suit the 
life of a sailor. Now, such thoughts exist and work, 
and they must be met ; and the nearer they can be 
met in sailor fashion the better. A striking history 
of a converted sailor does it exactly. A man who 
was so thoroughly a seaman that he always used the 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON. 33 

language of the sea, even on his dying bed, when a 
friend came to ask him how he was, replied, " Land 
in sight!" and to a similar question some time after, 
" How are you now, brother ? " " Just casting anchor 
in the Bay of Glory." Such an instance is better than 
a thousand laboured arguments, because with such 
men it falls in their way of thinking. 

Again, an illustration of the need of thus meeting 
the workings of thought among different classes was 
shown a few months ago in a parish in Yorkshire, 
where, with the rough-and-ready manner usual among 
the lower orders there, a clergyman, on first meeting 
some of his parishioners, was asked, " Have ye read 
t' Essays and Reviews 1 " " Yes." u Then we'll come 
and hear ye." 

To Archdeacon Paley's well-known direction that 
sermons should be local, I would add another — that 
they should be contemporary. And it is a noticeable 
fact that sermons like those of Chrysostom, which 
attracted crowds of people day after day to listen 
with eager interest in the large churches of Antioch 
and Constantinople, supply the fullest source of in- 
formation for the manners and customs of the times 
in which he lived. Like Augustine and Basil, he 
discusses with his congregation the topics of their 
daily conversation — argues from the pulpit objections 
which they heard in the market-place — and uses 
similitudes drawn from the associations of their daily 

3 



34 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. II 

life, to move their feelings, taking care to give them 
when moved a heavenward direction. 

In close connection with this part of my subject, I 
would mention the importance of attaching practical 
thoughts to terms which, from frequent use, produce 
very superficial or very vague impressions. 

The term the world, in its bad sense — how vague 
and undefined it is ! But the hearers of Augustine 
were taught its meaning by one of those exhaustive 
discussions which satisfy the intellect and touch the 
heart : " Mundi, amores, terrores, errores ; " allure- 
ments to evil, hindrances and terrors to frighten away 
from what is good, false opinions and doctrines to 
deceive the mind. 

So with the word time, — he gives a threefold divi- 
sion : praeteritum, praesens, futurum ; then shows that 
there is a power of the mind which answers to the 
past — memoria ; a power of the mind which answers 
to the future — expectatio ; a power of the mind 
which answers to the present — attentio. Memoria 
prseteriti ; expectatio futuri ; attentio prsesentis. 

Very salutary and practical results are likely to 
follow such a concise and yet clear and • forcible 
explanation and application of the term, generally 
so vague and indefinite. 

Chrysostom's use of similitudes drawn from the 
objects of daily life is one of the marked features of 
his preaching, and his allusions to the habits of 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON. 35 

luxurious people in his day were as plain and incisive 
as even they could tolerate, — when, for instance, he 
spoke of the expensive jewellery which adorned the 
persons of ladies in his congregation, while multitudes 
were suffering from want of the necessaries of life : 
" In one tip of her little ear she wears a ring, the 
price of which would give food to ten thousand poor 
Christians." 

Augustine, in dealing with those murmurings about 
Divine Providence which he calls " Mare magnum 
tentationis," takes up a common objection in this 
style : " The thunderbolt strikes the mountain which 
has done no wrong, and spares the robber hid in its 
caves who has done wrong." How is this consistent 
with the Psalmist's expression, " fulfilling His 
word " ? * " Pro modulo meo," he says, I will try to 
explain this. Probably God is seeking the conver- 
sion of that robber, and He strikes the mountain 
which cannot fear, that the man who can fear may be 
converted. Sometimes you also, when you are ad- 
ministering discipline, strike the earth that your child 
may fear. (" Aliquando et tu cum das disciplinam 
feris terram, ut infans expavescat,") 

II. Again, sermons are needed which deal with the 
sorrows of human experience. This is the emotional 
aspect of the previous division of our subject, which 
may be called the intellectual. 

* Psalm cxlviii. 8. 



36 HOMTLETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. II. 

Perhaps there is no feature more strongly marked in 
the ministry of our Lord than this. The Sermon on 
the Mount proclaims the blessing which belongs to 
sanctified sorrow, and the dispositions which attend it. 
His last discourse is full of comfortable words for 
those who were likely to be troubled by the sepa- 
rations, apprehensions, and persecutions, and various 
sorrows which make up the tribulation of the world. 
"The Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief " 
dealt with the sorrows of those among whom He 
walked in a spirit of sympathy and mercy — so as 
"to bind up the broken-hearted, ,, — " to comfort all 
that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in 
Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of 
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit 
of heaviness.'' And when we remember how largely 
affliction enters into the experience of every congre- 
gation, how thankfully words of kind sympathy are 
listened to even by those who care not much for 
other communication from the preacher's lips, and 
how precious the ministration of comfort is when 
coming from those who seem to understand the 
sorrow which needs it, we must see how important 
a part of the work of a preacher of the Word it is 
to deal in a right spirit with the subject of human 
sorrow: broken fortunes, blighted prospects, dis- 
appointed expectations, the pains of separation and 
bereavement, the discouragements of toil and poverty, 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON. 37 

the depression of failing health, the sorrows caused by 
the sufferings and the perils of those near and dear. 

Very valuable is the sermon which deals judici- 
ously and affectionately with subjects like these, and 
which ministers wisely and tenderly the consolations 
of the Gospel. In this way the grateful confidence 
of hearers is elicited, and a sacred bond of sym- 
pathetic affection is formed and strengthened, which 
often proves amongst the strongest and most endur- 
ing. Is not this one of the chief causes which 
make the proverb true, " A house-going clergyman 
makes a church-going people " — that such visitation 
gives a knowledge of the actual realities of trial 
and sorrow which elicits consolation at the home, 
and produces in the pulpit the real dealing with 
life as it is ? 

There are many circumstances which make the 
present times to be times of sorrow. Take the one 
fact of the wide diffusion of members of English 
families all over the world — the pains of separation, 
the tidings of death, the fearful catastrophes by 
which hundreds are engulfed at once in the waves 
of the sea : who is there of us that has not been 
called to minister comfort on occasions such as these? 
And how can a ministry be any other than a mere 
perfunctory discharge of a round of duties, which 
does not deal with such subjects at solemn meetings 
of the people in the house of God ? While, on the 



38 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lkct. II. 

other hand, the question may also be asked, what 
is more likely to awaken the attention, to retain 
the respect and esteem of our hearers, than the 
reverent, sympathising, affectionate application of 
the truths of God's Word to occurrences in God's 
world ? 

III. But above all — and, indeed, involving all the 
rest — is the need of a ministry which will approve 
itself to men's consciences in the sight of God in 
those things which concern sin and salvation. " Let 
a man so account of us as ministers of Christ, and 
stewards of the mysteries of God/' A stronger 
censure could not well be pronounced on a ministry 
of the Word, than what was once meant to be an 
expression of approval of the style and matter of 
a certain preachers sermons. " I like to go and 
hear him on the Sunday morning, for a man may 
commit adultery on the Wednesday, and go and 
hear him on the Sunday without having his con- 
science disturbed." It could not be said of that 
pulpit that "the word which came from it was 
quick and powerful, and sharper than any two- 
edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder 
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, 
being a discerner even of the thoughts and intents 
of the heart." Felix might have listened there 
without trembling. But the preacher of the gospel 
has authority to deal with sin — sin in its nature — 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON. 39 

sin in history — sin in biography — sin in its moral 
consequences — sin in its everlasting punishment ; 
the deceitfulness of sin, the disgrace and shame, 
the peril and the pain of it; and where men tllk, 
for instance, about social evil, to denounce God's 
wrath against it ; when they give way to self- 
indulgence and luxury, and forget their obligations 
to the poor and needy, to repeat the words of 
inspiration, " If any man love the world, the love 
of the Father is not in him ; " and to reiterate, 
with proper adaptation to the forms of evil which 
may be in the ascendant, the solemn admonition — 
leaving no mistake as to its application — " Be not 
deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man 
sovveth, that shall he also reap/' " Because of these 
things cometh the wrath of God upon the children 
of disobedience." 

Such preaching will doubtless arouse anger and 
opposition, but it will also command respect ; and 
when men are led to see their sins in the light of 
God's Word, they are likely to be impressed with 
the truth that they themselves are in the light of 
God's countenance ; and as the secrets of a man's 
heart are thus made manifest to him he is likely 
to worship God, and to repeat that God is in that 
congregation of a truth. I believe few of us are 
aware how much consciousness of wrong, and even 
conviction of sinfulness, is latent in the hearts of 



40 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. II. 

crowds who worship in our churches ; and when 
they see their experience mirrored not in the 
unhealthy pages of a sensational novel, but in the 
wholesome utterances of the truth of God's Word, 
the conviction often becomes, under the influence' 
of God's Spirit, irresistible, and leads to that godly 
sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation not 
to be repented of. 

Again, to pass from the dealing with hidden sin 
and latent conviction, how many examples occur 
in God's providence of the unmasking of secret 
sin, when a long course of hidden wickedness is 
brought to light, and the manifestation which is 
made is like a rehearsal of what shall take place 
on the day of judgment ! When by the agency 
of the press such events are exposed to the gaze 
of the whole world, surely it is required of preachers 
to point the moral, to enforce the lesson ; to make 
reverent acknowledgment of the present government 
of God ; to lead on the thoughts to that last grand 
assize, when the books shall be opened and the 
judgment set, and when, as Chrysostom says, the 
Judge will know everything better than can be 
told by any number and variety of witnesses. More- 
over, in days like ours, when the destinies of man- 
kind form the subject of speculation and matter 
of comment in so many directions, there seems to 
be a special call on the preachers of God's Word 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON. 41 

to look often themselves, and frequently to call 
the attention of their hearers, to that testimony of 
prophecy which contains the history of the end 
from the beginning. The frequent attacks made 
by unbelievers on the Messianic prophecies show 
their value in the scale of Christian evidence ; 
while the congregation which is built up in the 
knowledge of Christ, as imparted by Himself to 
the disciples going to Emmaus, and on other 
occasions, is more likely to enter into the true 
nature of His mission — the nature of His work ; 
and the impression of the supernatural, the con- 
viction of the truth of the Word, are likely to be 
kept clear and strong among those who have been 
accustomed to careful exposition of what may be 
called historic prophecy. In this way they are 
furnished with canons of interpretation of the 
greatest value of God's dealings in providence, 
which admit continually of application ; and then, 
when we look reverently into the future, and see 
the shadows of on-coming events, there is likely to 
be produced both in us and in our people that 
expectation of mind which may prepare us and 
them for its mighty manifestations, and, even if 
gloom should seem to be settling down on the Church 
or on the world, may keep alive the lamp of hope. 

" That is the heart for watchman true, 
Waiting to see what God will do, 



42 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. II. 

As o'er the church the gathering twilight falls ; 

His spirit calmed the storm to meet, 

Feeling the rock beneath his feet, 
And tracing through the clouds the Eternal Cause." 

The dispensations of Providence in our own time, 
the facts of history, the testimony of prophecy, 
ought often to make part of our sermons, when 
we remember that our aim and object is the same 
as that of John the Baptist — to make ready a 
people prepared for the Lord. Above all, the aim 
and object of our sermons should be to keep Christ 
ever in the prominent place of pre-eminence. The 
magnetic power is there. All true successors of 
the Apostles will, like them, cease not " to teach 
and preach Jesus Christ." And if men seem to 
grow weary of the theme, we must still continue — 
continue prayerfully, faithfully, affectionately, fully, 
to proclaim the doctrines of salvation through Him, 
and rely on His presence to work with us in His 
own time and way. He can so order events, and 
so influence the minds of men, that they shall 
have ears to hear and hearts to receive our testi- 
mony. With us, as with the great Apostle of the 
Gentiles, the one paramount object of life should 
be to testify the gospel of the grace of God ; and 
when we are called to remove to a distance from 
any flock which for a time had been committed to 
our charge, or when the last great change shall 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON. 43 

separate us from all our earthly work, the most 
consoling reflection by far which can make us 
thankful for the past will be the knowledge that 
we have been ministers of Christ in our spheres of 
duty — that, in listening to us, the sheep have heard 
the accents of the voice of the Good Shepherd. 

I said at the commencement that I would colour 
the answer to the question which forms the title of 
the paper by remarks drawn from the character 
of our times and the facts of experience. Our 
times are times marked by a revival of the assaults 
of unbelief. There is need of careful study, of 
prudence, and of courage in dealing with such 
assaults, and in imitating the great champions of 
the truth in all ages by enforcing the positive 
doctrine assailed. The obligations which flow from 
belief in the inspiration of Scripture, the lessons 
of adoration which are taught by what we know 
of the creation of the universe, are seen in all their 
power when the arguments which support the 
belief that " holy men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost," and that "in the 
beginning God created/' have prepared by the 
assent of the mind the docility of the heart. 

Ours are times in which the adherents of 
Romanism are endeavouring to compensate by 
successes in England for heavy losses sustained in 
places forming their greatest strongholds. Their 



44 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. II. 

frauds and falsehoods require unflinching exposure, 
with the labour to bring into clear light and practical 
application the positive truth which is gainsayed. 

Ours are times in which large masses of population 
have overgrown the measure of ministerial agency 
assigned for the supply of their spiritual wants, 
and we need every variety of style in addressing 
them. The herald's message to the large congre- 
gation in special mission services ; the painstaking, 
diligent teaching, the more familiar conversation in 
a larger or smaller social gathering, or the lecture 
on some secular subject, impregnated with the 
principles of Scripture : in all these ways there is 
room for the preaching of the Word in its aggres- 
sive sense. 

Then, again, ours are times in which many 
members of some congregations — and some members 
of most congregations — go forth to other lands. 
The faithful servant will endeavour to imitate his 
Master, and to say that which may afterwards be 
remembered to help in preparing them for the 
trials of their faith and practice. 

Our times are times in which the world is open 
to missionary effort. They require a style of preach- 
ing which will not omit the claims of the heathen, 
not only mentioning them at anniversaries, but 
incorporating the principles of missionary-action with 
all the other teaching of the duty of a Christian man. 



Lect. II.] THE END OR OBJECT OF A SERMON, 45 

Finally, ours are times in which there is a large 
number of well-trained Christian people, who love 
the truth, and are ready for every good work. For 
such persons a style of preaching is needed in which 
both those who preach and those who hear may 
be helped on to higher stages of Christian know- 
ledge and Christian life. To be helpers of their 
joy — to pray that they may abound in hope — to 
forget, and teach them to forget, the things that 
are behind, and reach forth unto the things that 
are before, — such are some of the objects of the 
Christian ministry, which it may be feared do not 
receive sufficient attention in this age of multi- 
farious occupation. And yet they must be ranked 
amongst the most important, if we w T ould keep those 
whom we have, and add to our ranks those who 
now keep aloof; for it is only as we have with us 
a band of men whose hearts God has touched, that 
we can really hope to see His work prospering 
amongst us. 

Let the question which naturally arises in our 
hearts be considered with deep humility : " Who 
is sufficient for these things?" and let the answer 
be held fast with undoubting prayerful confidence : 
" Our sufficiency is of God," 



Ipwtwlg pints on ^xtztfyxiQ. 

BY THE VERY REVEREND JOHN SAUL HOWSON, D.D., DEAN 
OF CHESTER, AND CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF 
WINCHESTER. 



III- 

HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 

THERE is a certain advantage in giving simply 
" hints " for preaching, and in taking care that 
those hints shall be " homely " ; because preaching, 
though one of the highest and greatest tasks in which 
man can be engaged, is one of the commonplaces of 
Christianity. Sermons are delivered much oftener 
than week by week throughout the year. Almost 
any suggestions, therefore, for their improvement 
must have their value; and as to the " experience " 
which is to be the source of these hints, any one who 
has been more than thirty years in Holy Orders, and 
has been engaged throughout that time in active and 
varied work, must have observed many things very 
useful to himself, and therefore not useless to his 
neighbours. He must have felt his own difficulties, 
and found out some at least of his own defects ; and 
he must have marked both the excellences and the 
defects of others. He must therefore have received 
some impressions which it is worth while to compare 
and combine with the impressions of those around him. 
I do not enter far into the debate which might 

4 



So HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

naturally arise at the outset, between the relative 
advantages of written sermons and spoken sermons. 
Most of this ground I treat as an open question. 
Each method has its strong points and its weak 
points. There is no doubt that direct oral preaching 
is the more natural ; and it is no wonder that a large 
number of persons prefer it. Under some circum- 
stances (let me especially refer to the people of 
Wales) it is probably unwise to preach in any other 
way. And even to English people, with their colder 
temperament, what are called extempore sermons pre- 
sent this attraction — that they appear to come more 
from the heart than sermons deliberately written 
beforehand. Yet even in this instinctive criticism 
there is often some misapprehension. I have heard 
of a Scotch minister not being visible on Saturday, 
because he was, as his servant said, " communing" or, 
in other words, learning by heart, for the next day, 
a composition on which he had been laboriously 
engaged through the earlier part of the week. The 
public opinion, which requires the semblance of 
extempore preaching, when the reality is absent, is 
certainly a tyranny. And on the other hand we must 
remember that large numbers of our better educated 
classes in England prefer written sermons, and this 
for reasons which are not to be disregarded. Such 
sermons are viewed as not mere efforts for the 
moment : having been carefully prepared, it is pre- 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 51 

sumed that they contain something worthy of being 
remembered ; and the written manuscript is con- 
sidered a salutary check upon hasty utterances on a 
serious and responsible occasion. Yet here again 
there maybe misapprehension in the criticism. It 
does not at all follow that because the manuscript 
is ready and complete, therefore it has cost any real 
thought, or contains anything of permanent value. 
Perhaps some of the most useless sermons are those 
that are produced by extempore writing. This is a 
severe expression ; but such severity is good for some 
of us. Our clerical Saturdays in England see a good 
deal of this extempore writing. Something must be 
got ready for the necessary time in the pulpit on 
Sunday. The problem may be solved well or ill, but 
solved it must be. I am well aware of the exigencies 
which sometimes arise without any fault of our own. 
But in a paper like this a high standard must be set 
before us. The only other remark I will make on 
the comparison of written and oral sermons is this, 
(and I will suppose myself writing for young men,) 
If extemporaneous speaking is difficult to you, take 
pains to acquire this power, and persevere till you 
succeed ; if again free oral utterance is easy to you, 
then be sure that you write much and write carefully, 
lest through fluency you run away from discipline. 
In each case let your " homely hints " be derived 
from the " experience " of defects. 



52 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

And there is another debated question into which 
I decline to enter at any length. I institute no 
comparison into the relative advantages of long 
sermons and short sermons. This only will I 
observe : that the impression of length in a sermon 
does not always depend entirely, or even chiefly, 
on the hands of the clock. Preachers vary ex- 
tremely in their power of securing and maintaining 
attention. Some men can carry an audience along 
with them, and keep them moving onwards from 
point to point, so that a time really long appears 
at the end to have been very short. But other 
modes of preaching have a different result. We 
have heard of the clergyman who, knowing that a 
certain master of patronage, then present in the 
church, was fond of short sermons, took care to be 
very brief, and who, when the sermon was ended, 
asked the patron how he liked the sermon, and 
received the reply, "You were certainly not very 
long." On which the clergyman said, " I did not 
wish to be tedious ; " and the rejoinder was, " I 
did not say you were not tedious/' In this matter 
we must, I think, derive some " homely hints " 
from our own u experience." Still there are certain 
general suggestions which cannot wisely be over- 
looked. The Englishman's family dinner on Sunday 
is an event which cannot be trifled with, and 
which has a very important bearing on his power 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 53 

of listening continuously after the middle part of 
the day. Moreover, our customary morning service 
is extremely long. And again, the fashion and 
taste of the day point to short compositions as 
those which are on the whole preferred. The 
rapidly read article in the newspaper, the hasty 
essay covering only two or three pages in the 
magazine, form a strong contrast to the long and 
laboriously written books of the older time, which 
are on the shelves of our libraries. Our sermons 
must, of course, feel the influence of the prevalent 
habit of the times : and we ought carefully to 
acquire the power of delivering, on suitable occa- 
sions, short pointed addresses in the pulpit. I may 
conclude what occurs to me under this head by 
saying, that if I were required to spend an hour on 
two Sunday sermons, I should not divide the time 
into two equal parts, but should be disposed to 
preach twenty minutes in the morning, and forty 
in the evening. Our evening congregations consist 
largely of those who, after a short service, are 
rather glad to have a long sermon, and can listen 
to it easily. The morning sermons are preached, 
as I have said, under different conditions, and our 
more highly educated people, too, who are then at 
church, are impatient of prolixity. 

I will still make one further introductory remark. 
I can hardly help speaking in a somewhat didactic 



54 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. III. 

fashion : but I hope this will not be misunderstood, 
for, when attempting to give hints, this method is 
evidently the most convenient. Let me now proceed 
to the hints themselves. 

i. First, then, I would say, Preach as if you 
intended to be listened to. Go into the pulpit with 
this intention in your mind. This will give an 
air of reality to your words, it will put you into 
immediate contact with the minds of those whom 
you address, and it will tend to make you preach 
in your natural voice. You do not go into the 
pulpit merely to read something for the sake of 
reading it — merely to do something which must be 
done, but which, on the whole, you would rather 
not do at all. Some people preach as though 
they wished not to be listened to ; and the people 
instinctively take notice of this apparent desire, 
and act accordingly. What I am here venturing 
to recommend is something very different from a 
mere jaunty self-confidence. Nothing can be more 
indecorous and offensive than that, and few things 
more culpable. Neither has it anything in common 
with a rough and harsh dogmatism : it is quite 
consistent with that deference to a congregation 
which apostolic example teaches us to cultivate. 
Still, whatever be the danger of such faults, a 
sermon is an address to an assembled audience 
for purposes of persuasion ; and the manner ought 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 55 

to be in harmony with the meaning of what is 
done. 

2. I spoke just now of the voice, and my second 
point has reference to its careful management. I 
am not mentioning this for the purpose of giving 
you technical and professional advice. I do not 
presume to think that I could do this efficiently. 
But there are some things, in regard to this matter, 
which experience has impressed upon me. 

Give out your text clearly and firmly. Let there 
be no doubt as to the real words of the text, and 
its place in Holy Scripture. Of this you may be 
very sure — that your text is the best part of your 
sermon. It seems to me a good plan to give out 
the text twice ; and if people say to you that such 
a custom is pedantic, give no heed to such criticism. 

You will expect me to say something on distinct- 
ness of articulation, No words can exaggerate the 
importance of this. The advice which is commonly 
given may be summed up in the maxim, "Take 
care of the consonants, and the vowels will take 
care of themselves/' This is, on the whole, a true 
maxim, but it is only approximately true. Some 
men pronounce their vowels very badly and in- 
correctly, and the result is most unpleasing. Stiil 
the great difficulty is with the consonants ; and 
every man ought to find out and observe with what 
organs, and with what use of these organs, they are 



56 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

produced — how the throat, the palate, the tongue, 
the teeth, the lips, are severally employed, so as 
to produce the sounds in question. Without 
this knowledge and observation it will be almost 
impossible to cure defects. 

Let it be remembered, too, that each consonantal 
sound has a separate existence, and has a right to 
this separate existence. The same thing is true of 
words and of sentences. No doubt words may be 
sent out separately from the mouth, like drops out 
of a medicine-bottle, in a manner which is ludicrous 
and provoking. But if words are impinged against 
one another, and jammed into one another, the 
result must be confusion on the part of the speaker 
and inattention on the part of the hearers. You 
can imagine their feelings under such circumstances, 
if you remember the irritating effect sometimes 
produced on yourself by that kind of handwriting 
in which the words are run into one another and 
entangled together on the page. And as with words, 
so with sentences. Those groups of words which 
we call sentences are marked off on the page by 
punctuation, so as to be isolated and self-existent. 
And in vocal utterance to the ear, this their right 
ought to be preserved. To secure this end, the 
voice should not be unduly lowered at the close 
of a sentence ; and it is not always easy to manage 
this without speaking artificially. 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 57 

This brings me to another point, which I regard 
as the most important of all. Be sure, when in the 
pulpit, to speak in your natural voice. God has 
given you a certain voice ; and you are sure to be 
punished, and your audience punished too, if you 
use another voice. The power of listening is mar- 
vellously diminished if we do not speak naturally. 
And yet the habit of adopting a non-natural voice 
in the pulpit is so commo.i, that the risk of this 
fault is almost universal. Where these non-natural 
voices come from is a difficult and puzzling ques- 
tion. They get into the lungs, throat, and mouth 
of the preacher, in the short interval during which 
he mounts the pulpit stair. If we ask why a man 
speaks artificially in the pulpit, though the very 
same man will speak quite naturally on the plat- 
form, I imagine that the reason may be this, — that 
in the latter case he must conceive it possible that 
there may be interruption, and that he may be 
called to defend himself and to reply, whereas in 
the former case the congregation is absolutely un- 
protected. However this may be, the point with 
which we have to deal in this part of our subject 
is very serious ; and we must lay it down as a 
truth, that it is -by no means easy for a preacher, 
without taking some pains, to address a congrega- 
tion in his natural voice, The case of the barrister 
is very different, who speaks on common topics in 



58 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. Ill 

a place of no great size, and has seldom need to 
go beyond the limits of what may be called 
eloquent and persuasive conversation. The con- 
ditions of a sermon are extremely different from 
those of conversation. It is a great safeguard to 
be aware of our danger in this respect A young' 
clergyman should watch himself very carefully at 
first ; for bad habits, once formed, are not easy to 
correct. And we should ail be ready to welcome 
the criticism of our friends, and to welcome that 
criticism all the more if it is unpalatable. We 
must bear in mind that in preaching our business 
is to reach our people's hearts by means of utter- 
ance ; hence it is our duty to make the vehicle by 
which our truth reaches them as good as we can. 

I will make only one other remark before passing 
to my next point. A written sermon may be so read 
as to have all the animation and life of a speech ; and 
a sermon uttered without paper or notes may be as 
dull as a schoolboy's lesson. 

3. And now I suggest, in the third place, this : 
Present your subject well on several sides. Let your 
people have the opportunity of going round it and 
looking at it well, so as to distinguish it definitely 
from every other subject. Don't let your sermon on 
one subject be almost what it would have been if 
preached upon some other subject. Of course, in 
order to secure this end, you must have in your own 



Lect. 1 1 1.1 HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 59 

mind a clear view of your subject — you must have 
isolated it, so to speak, and looked at it well on its 
various sides. All this implies close attention and 
careful thought from the beginning to the end of 
the composition of your sermon. 

The choice of subject is a matter of great impor- 
tance, and not always very easy. On this I shall 
have a word to say presently. But when the subject 
is chosen, then comes the preparing of the mode of 
its presentation. It is evidently important, whether 
the sermon is rapidly or slowly written, or not written 
at all, still that sufficient time should have been 
taken for the contemplation and weighing of the 
subject. My experience tells me that it is well to 
have the beginning of this preparation well in 
advance of the moment of preaching. Some men 
make it a rule to fix every Sunday evening upon 
their subject for the following Sunday, and their 
mode of treating it; and I imagine that no one, 
after having done this, would be likely to sleep the 
worse after the hard work of the Lord's day. When 
a sermon is kept thus a good while on the anvil, a 
stroke may be given to it now and then. It comes 
continually into better shape. Illustrative thoughts 
suggest themselves through the pastoral engagements 
of the week. There is another consideration, too, 
which is not without its weight in recommending 
this plan. Composition, if it is not pursued under 



60 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

pressure, has a soothing effect on the mind in the 
midst of anxious and uneasy thoughts. Thus a 
sermon in progress is a good companion for the 
clergyman during the interval between Sunday and 
Sunday. I would go even further than this, and 
suggest the practice of having several sermons on 
hand at the same time. When the mind cannot 
move freely along one line of thought, it may sud- 
denly acquire great alacrity when set to move upon 
another line. But I have already been trespassing 
upon my next topic. What I have just been saying 
I should wish to be viewed as suggestions subservient 
to the obtaining of a clear view of our subject on all 
its sides, so that it may be skilfully and easily turned 
round in the face of the congregation, and distinctly 
remembered by them when they quit the church. 

4. Fourthly, then, See to it that your composition is 
orderly. Let your sermon have a beginnings middle, 
and an end ; and let all its parts be in due propor- 
tion. Avoid a long and elaborate introduction. An 
admirer of the great John Howe, who sometimes fell 
into this fault, is reported to have said, " Dear, good 
man, he is so long in laying the cloth, that I lose my 
appetite, and I begin to think there will be no dinner 
after all." And in the course of your sermon, don't 
lead your hearers from the main road into devious 
by-paths. If you succeed in finding your own- way 
back again, you may not be able to take them back 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 61 

with you, but may leave them utterly lost. And 
beware of a rambling, miscellaneous conclusion to 
your sermon. Remember that the last impression 
which you make is quite as important as the first. 
It is impossible to lay too .much stress on this rule 
of order and organisation in composing. Sermons 
might be divided into two classes, — which, borrowing 
an image from Natural History, I will call vertebrate 
and molluscous. I have heard some discourses from 
the pulpit which might have been turned round with 
little disadvantage, and preached from the end almost 
as well as from the beginning. But sermons of the 
molluscous kind produce little impression on a con 
gregation : for this simple reason, that it is impossible 
to attend to them. For purposes of real instruction, 
sermons must be vertebrate. When you see and 
admire a horse moving vigorously and easily along 
the road, you do not see his bones and muscles; 
but you know that if the bones and muscles were 
not there, and disposed, too, and fitted in a very 
orderly manner, there would be nothing to admire. 
So in a good sermon there must be a skeleton, 
though the skeleton need not be seen. By all 
means make use even of abundant drapery, if you 
please ; but be sure that there is a true skeleton 
underneath. The richest drapery placed upon a 
mere stick is only a scarecrow. It is quite a mis- 
take to suppose tffet the poor and the ignorant do 



62 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

not feel the power of order in that which is addressed 
to them. They do feel the power, though they may 
not understand the reason. The present Dean of 
Carlisle, who has had very large experience, points 
out most truly, in his preface to some notes on 
preaching, that by help of systematic arrangement 
in the sermon they both understand it better and 
remember it better. Vinet, who, as a philosophic 
writer on this subject, is of the highest eminence, 
goes so far as to say : " Order is the characteristic 
of a true sermon : a sermon cannot exist in any 
other way : without order one would not know what 
to call it." 

5. A fifth hint is this : Dotit deal in your sermon 
with an imaginary audience. Let not your preaching 
be enveloped in a world of your own ; but let it have 
direct reference to the world which you are address- 
ing. Be in a true and natural relation towards those 
to whom you preach. I met lately with an illustra- 
tion which will serve my purpose at this point. It is 
in Washington Irving's " Sketch Book," in the chapter 
on " Christmas." He goes to church, and he describes 
as follows what he heard and saw : — 

" The parson gives us a most erudite sermon on 
the rites and ceremonies of Christmas, and the pro- 
priety of observing it not merely as a day of thanks- 
giving, but of rejoicing, supporting the correctness of 
his opinion by the earliest usages of the Church, and 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 63 

enforcing them by the authorities of Theophilus of 
Csesarea, St. Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, 
and a cloud more of Saints and Fathers, from whom 
he made copious quotations. I was a little at a loss 
to perceive the necessity of such a mighty array of 
forces to maintain a point which no one present 
seemed inclined to dispute ; but I soon found that 
the good man had a legion of ideal adversaries to 
contend with ; having, in the course of his researches 
on the subject of Christmas, got completely embroiled 
in the sectarian controversies of the Revolution, when 
the Puritans made such a fierce assault upon the cere- 
monies of the Church, and poor old Christmas was 
driven out of the land by a proclamation of Parlia- 
ment. The worthy parson lived entirely with times 
past, and knew but little of the present." And the 
writer continues in the same strain through another 
page, and in conclusion he adds : " I have seldom 
known a sermon attended apparently with more im- 
mediate effects ; for Gn leaving the church the congre- 
gation seemed one and all possessed with the gaiety 
of spirits so earnestly enjoined by their pastor." 

This is not precisely what is likely to happen in 
our own time, but it is a sufficient and an amusing 
illustration of a principle of high importance. 

6. No one will object to the next principle which 
I confidently lay down : Whatever your method is, 
take the utmost pains. Talents vary; but all may be 



64 H0MILET1CAL LECTURES, [Lect. IIL 

diligent. No one is responsible for the exercise of 
abilities which do not belong to him ; but every man 
who undertakes the solemn duty of preaching the 
Gospel is bound to do his best : and God's blessing 
may be expected to rest on honest industry. More- 
over, it may be laid down as a law of nature, that 
that which has cost thought is most likely to excite 
thought in others. The possession of great natural 
powers of exposition, whether in writing or in utter- 
ance, can be no excuse for idleness and neglect. I 
heard recently, at a nobleman's house in the North of 
England, an instructive anecdote of the late Bishop 
Wilberforce. When on a visit there, he had preached 
a charming sermon to a village congregation ; and 
some one had been foolish enough to say to him, 
" I suppose, my lord, you can always preach to a 
congregation like this without any preparation?" To 
which he replied, " I was up at six o'clock this morn- 
ing preparing for this sermon ; and I make it a rule 
ever, when it is possible, to preach anywhere unless 
I am saturated with my subject." This phrase — 
"saturated with my subject" — expresses, I think, 
very well the condition of mind at which a clergy- 
man should aim before he preaches ; and this general 
mode of stating the rule leaves great freedom for 
details, in accordance with variety in the habits and 
temperaments of preachers. 

We put our feet here upon debatable ground in 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 65 

regard to the best mode of using the work of others 
in preparing our sermons. If there is to be diligence 
generally, there must be diligence in study and re- 
search, according to our opportunities. We must 
make use of commentators in order to become 
thoroughly masters of the meaning of our text. 
Moreover, when the mind is dull and stagnant, some 
religious reading may be almost necessary in order 
to set it in motion. Mr. Spurgeon says : " When a 
pump has been long disused, and will not work, you 
pour a little water down, and then it works/' It 
seems to me, however, that the plan of our sermon 
ought to be our own ; and that it is better to read 
largely, and to seek for useful materials, after the 
plan is made, than before it is made. If the plan is 
your own, the sermon is your own in a truer sense, 
and you are likely to preach it with more heart than 
if you were to take the framework from some one 
else, and then fill in the empty spaces. As to disre 
garding and neglecting what has been said by others 
on our chosen subject, this would seem to me to 
argue a culpable self-sufficiency. God has given to 
many, through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and 
through natural gifts, great wisdom and skill in the 
unfolding of His truth ; and these treasures of expo- 
sition, when once in existence, become the perpetual 
treasure of the Church, and from them rich supplies 
should be drawn for each generation. Our rule, then, 

5 



66 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

briefly stated, in regard to the particular point before 
us, must be this — Use copiously all good materials 
that are within your reach ; but never use them to 
the exclusion of yourself, or for the dilution of your 
own painstaking. 

7. There will probably be less of general agree- 
ment in what I am bold enough to say next ; yet it 
is a maxim, or at least a suggestion, which comes to 
me recommended by my own observation : Be not 
afraid to preach the same thing often. Each earnest- 
minded clergyman has some things deeply impressed 
on his heart, which he longs to say, and is glad to 
reiterate. Most young men, if they are really in 
earnest, have had, even before they were ordained, 
some things in their hearts which they have deeply felt ; 
and these thoughts remain with them afterwards, and 
fructify within, and are well adapted to be of benefit 
to their people. And, to descend to a lower level, a 
sermon once well digested and carefully arranged, 
after being found to be acceptable, is fitted for useful 
service again and again. It is wiser to give to our 
people of our best frequently, than to lay before them 
inferior food, merely that they may have variety. 
Moreover, greater freedom is acquired in proportion 
to our familiarity with the sermon ; and again, by 
preaching the same sermon frequently we gain oppor- 
tunities for continually improving it. Chalmers was 
a great preacher, and it is said that he never delivered 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 67 

a sermon with satisfaction till he delivered it the third 
time. Few men have ever moved the minds and 
hearts of men so much as Whitefield, and he preached 
the same sermons constantly. He considered, I have 
been told, no one of his discourses to be thoroughly- 
ready for its work till it had been delivered seventeen 
times. 

Of course, in making these remarks, and giving 
these illustrations, I shall not be misunderstood. I 
do not forget that Whitefield was an itinerant, while 
you may be called to preach to a stated congregation, 
which changes only by the growing up of the young, 
the departure of the old, and the influx of new in* 
habitants or new worshippers. Moreover, I bear in 
mind that there is a repetition of old sermons which 
is a mark of thorough negligence. A clergyman was 
asked how he contrived to preach the same sermons 
continually, and yet never to be found out, — to which 
he replied, " I always make a point of changing the 
text : I also alter the first sentence ; and then I have 
turned the dangerous corner. ,, I know a parish in 
one of the dales in Yorkshire, where this process was 
adopted with singular success. It was a most ortho- 
dox parish — not a dissenter was found there. If a 
dissenter appeared within the frontier, I have under- 
stood that he was stoned, and there were plenty of 
stones on the ground for the purpose. But hardly 
any one went to church ; and the preacher left in the 



68 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

pulpit, among the spiders, from Sunday to Sunday, 
his little volume of printed sermons, with a mark to 
indicate the last which he had preached. 

This is not the kind of repetition which I wish to 
inculcate. As to any apprehension of being accused 
of negligence when you do not deserve it, and of 
repeating your sermons merely to save yourself 
trouble, I think you may safely leave your life to 
answer such criticisms. I suppose that you are per- 
fectly frank with your people, and that you practise 
no deception. They will probably be as glad as you 
are that your sermons are sometimes repeated. They 
will feel that it is good for them to hear again what 
they have listened to already with pleasure and profit. 

And even on the ground of abridging toil and 
severe mental effort, I am inclined to recommend 
such repetition. I cannot resist the temptation of 
referring here to one prevalent evil of our day, the 
mention of which belongs, perhaps, only collaterally 
to our subject, but in regard to which I have been 
led to think very seriously. Many of my pupils have 
entered Holy Orders. I have also been during several 
years Examining Chaplain to a Bishop. Thus I have 
had good opportunities for taking an interest in the 
younger clergy, and feeling a sympathy with them in 
their difficulties. It is with great regret that I see 
young men, with very little experience of life, and 
but scanty attainments in theology, put practically 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 69 

in charge of large parishes, with the duty of preach- 
ing three sermons a week. I am not without some 
experience in composition ; and I know that, with 
the sick to visit, parish business to organize, schools 
to superintend, three sermons, worthy to be called 
sermons, cannot by ordinary men be produced within 
the week. The result of this state of things is, that 
preparation for the pulpit either becomes a scramble 
under difficulty, and thus a bad, loose habit of 
sermon-writing is formed, or that contraband goods 
are passed off by young elergymen as their own, and 
thus the tone of conscience is lowered. ■ I plead for 
mercy to those who are placed in such positions — 
mercy on the part of absent rectors and vicars — 
mercy on the part of an exacting, inconsiderate 
public. One remedy would be found in that honest 
use of printed sermons in the pulpit, which has in 
fact the Church's sanction ; so that the preacher's 
own mind may be kept free and fresh for the careful 
composition of that which is really his own. Another 
remedy, I venture to think, is to be found in the 
moral courage which enables a man to repeat fre- 
quently what he has well considered. This is not 
exactly the sense in which St. Paul says — but there 
is no harm in giving this turn to his words — " To say 
the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, 
and for you it is safe. 

8. Something was said above concerning the 



70 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

choice of a subject. This is not always easy, partly 
because the choice is large, partly because a diffi- 
culty is often felt as to the topic which fits the 
moment best. I would say, then — Pay carefid atten- 
tion to the order of the Church's services. Let your 
sermons, on the whole, follow the lines marked down 
by the Prayer Book. You are, indeed, a minister of 
God's Word ; but you are also a minister of the 
Church of England. It is, no doubt, possible to be 
pedantic in this way, to put yourself in chains, and 
to do your work in a treadmill, when you always 
ought to feel reasonably free. Still it is a great 
advantage to us that our course of teaching is, to 
a considerable extent, settled for us. Moreover, by 
letting our thoughts run in this mould, we are in 
harmony with the general Church, and in contact, so 
to speak, with the earlier ages, as well as with these 
times of our own. And certainly we shall not fail, 
on this method, to have a variety of topics suggested. 
It is very probable, too, that we shall thus be hindered 
from neglecting some subjects which we might other- 
wise neglect or make unduly, subordinate. This is a 
good high road along which to travel with ease and 
with profit. Keble's lines are admirably true : — 

"Along the Church's central space 
The sacred weeks, with unfelt pace, 
Will bear us on from grace to grace." 

We must recollect, too, that the people, when they 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 71 

come to church, are put into a certain attitude by 
the Prayer Book. Their minds are ready to receive 
teaching of a certain kind. They know already, 
more or less, the Collect, the Epistle and Gospel, the 
Lessons and the Psalms. When a man desires to 
select his seed judiciously, he will have some regard 
to the soil. 

9. I now reach my ninth suggestion, which is this : 
Deal fairly with your text. Be sure you know, in the 
first place, what it really means. This of course 
points, as I have already said, to diligent and careful 
study. 

When in Lent you preach on the words, "Man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God " — do not make 
this to indicate a contrast between bodily food and 
spiritual food, with a preference given, of course, to 
the latter, whereas the text points to God's power of 
taking care of us by extraordinary means, when 
ordinary means fail. When you quote from the 
Epistle to the Romans St. Paul's words, " Whatsoever 
is not of faith is sin," do not make them the ground- 
work of a defence of the XHIth Article, concerning 
"Works done before Justification;" whereas the 
words simply remind us of the practical, but most 
solemn truth, that what we do without an honest 
belief that it is right, is (to us) really wrong. When 
you quote the 112th Psalm to this effect — " He hath 



72 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. Ill 

given to the poor : he hath scattered abroad : his 
righteousness endureth for ever," do not apply these 
words to Almighty God, whereas they refer to the 
righteous and large-hearted man, whose power of 
beneficence grows, under God's blessing, with its 
exercise. 

This illustrates the truth that, in order to be fair 
to a text, we must have very careful regard to the 
context. And this, again, requires thoughtful study 
and close attention. I do not say that there ought 
to be no sermons on special subjects, where the text 
is merely a motto, and only prefixed because of the 
very proper rule that every sermon must have a text. 
I am speaking of those sermons which are expositions 
of Holy Scripture : and most of our sermons must 
be of this character. God will bless His own Word ; 
but not if we make it to mean something different 
from that which it was intended to mean. 

And one more remark I venture to make on this 
special topic. Be not too anxious in one discourse 
to balance and reconcile truths which are apparently 
conflicting. Set forth boldly the truth which you 
have in hand ; and on some other occasion set forth 
with equal boldness the correlative truth. This is 
part of what I term dealing fairly with your text. 
Christianity is not a collection of compromises, but 
rather a system of truths revealed so far as it is 
necessary for us to know them — the perfect recon- 



Lect. Ill,] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 73 

ciliation of these truths being in the mind of God, 
while a sufficient reconciliation of them, for the pre- 
sent, is in the heart of the believer. 

10. Once more, make much of the study of character. 
You address a congregation. That is true. But it 
is true in a still more important sense, that you 
address each person in that congregation. Souls are 
saved one by one. Each person now before you has 
his own separate biography. The recollection of this 
will give point to your remarks, will almost instinc- 
tively secure variety in their adaptation, and will tend 
to bring your words home to separate consciences. 

The Bible itself furnishes to us a guiding hint in 
this respect. To a very large extent it is made up 
of biography. What a large space is filled in the 
Old Testament by patriarchs, kings, and prophets ! 
What a large space in the New Testament by St. 
Paul ! The Bible, the best of all books in everything 
that relates to human conduct, is the best also in 
this respect — that it furnishes to us the best studies 
of character. Some of the men, too, in the Bible — 
such as Jacob, for instance, or Pilate — are in their 
weaknesses and faults singularly like men we have 
known. Even the parables, we may say, both with 
reverence and truth, are studies of character. 

This train of thought leads us to see in a very 
serious light the importance of diligent and discrimi- 
nating pastoral work. Character must be studied in 



74 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

detail ; and if we are to minister effectually to our 
people, we must know them. It will perhaps be said 
that these remarks are not applicable to our great 
town parishes, where the weight of general population 
is so crushing, that the separate elements of it cannot 
be personally known. And there is truth in this 
criticism. But there is disadvantage, too, in the 
small country parish. If we preach on a particular 
kind of character, perhaps the man or the woman 
whom it fits is before us, known by ourselves and by 
every one who is present. It is not my business to 
compare one kind of parish with another. I am only 
laying down a general principle, which ought always 
to be kept in view. If we try to study human cha- 
racter, we shall continually be learning something 
new, and something good for our people. I re- 
member a curious illustration. When I was in 
charge of a large parish in the Fens, I preached, 
during the week-days in Lent, a course of short 
sermons on common faults; and on one of these 
days I preached upon Gossip. An old woman, when 
the service was over, said to her neighbours, with 
vehement displeasure, as she went out of the church, 
" I wish he'd mind his own business." It was evident 
that I had interfered with her business. I think this 
little parochial anecdote, if it is closely considered, 
will be found to be as instructive as it is entertaining. 
II. My last point is kindred to the preceding, but 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 75 

it takes us at once to very serious ground. Foster 
in your heart a spirit of sympathy. I have just been 
speaking of the study of human life in its separate 
elements. Here I am referring rather to our fellow- 
feeling with humanity at large. If we are to be 
persuasive preachers, we must be imbued with a 
feeling of this kind, characterized by both tenderness 
and breadth. In the New Testament two preachers 
stand before us and plead with mankind. One, our 
Blessed Redeemer, is at the height of all perfection ; 
the other, St. Paul, is more nearly on a level with 
ourselves. Both of them exercised persuasive power 
through sympathy. The author of u Ecce Deus," in 
a short preface to some recent notes on sermons, 
speaks of the power of the sympathy of Christ. 
He remarks most truly that where it is said that 
"the common people heard Him gladly," the allu- 
sion is not to what we call the lower classes, as 
opposed to the higher ; and when we look at the 
original Greek, we see that we are misled in our 
apprehension of this passage by our popular use 
of the word " common." The preaching of Christ 
" touched the common heart of the world ; and in 
His voice was a tone which was absent from all other 
speech." And such, on a ground infinitely lower, 
and yet far above ourselves, was the sympathy of 
St. Paul. I will give two illustrations. There is a 
beautiful passage in one of Newman's sermons, in 



76 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. III. 

which he points out the fellow-feeling of the great 
apostle with the poor heathens of Lystra, to whom 
he speaks of God's giving them " rain and fruitful 
seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.''* 
The other instance is that passage where St. Paul 
gives advice to his friend Timothy concerning his 
health, in the midst of lofty exhortations concerning 
religious doctrine and religious duty. These ex- 
amples refer to what may be termed external 
sympathy. But they are all the more forcible on 
that account. The sympathy of Christ's minister 
with his people ought to be universal. For the 
deeper sympathy self-knowledge is requisite. Each 
man has the germs of every fault within him, the 
indications of every weakness, the need of super- 
natural help on every side. This points to close and 
frequent self-examination. In proportion as we can 
be consciously in contact with all mankind, will our 
ministry be persuasive. Sympathy will give tone 
and colour to everything else. Cecil says that " truth 
and sympathy are the soul of an efficient ministry ; " 
and it is a golden saying. There must be truth, 
otherwise sympathy is a mere human emotion ; there 
must be sympathy, otherwise the truth of the Gospel 
itself is cold and unattractive. 

Let me now recapitulate the hints which, taught 
by experience, I have ventured to bring forward. 
After leaving open various questions that may be 



Lect. III.] HOMELY HINTS ON PREACHING. 77 

raised, as between written sermons and extempore 
sermons, or between long sermons and short sermons, 
I have asked you to consider the following sugges- 
tions : — (1) Go into the pulpit and preach as though 
you intended to be listened to ; (2) Deal with your 
voice on the principles of common sense ; (3) Present 
your subject clearly in its separation from all other 
subjects ; (4) See that your composition is an organic 
and well-organised whole; (5) Don't preach to an 
imaginary world, but to the real world in which you 
live ; (6) Whatever your method is, take the utmost 
pains with your work ; (7) Be not too much afraid 
of repeating often what you have well considered ; 
(8) Pay careful attention to the order suggested by 
the Church's services ; (9) Deal fairly with your 
text; (10) Make much of the study of character; 
(11) Foster in yourself the spirit of thoughtful 
sympathy. 

These are eleven points. If I am to add a twelfth, 
I will borrow one from Aristotle, who says in his 
" Rhetoric " that your power of persuasion will 
depend on the opinion your hearers entertain of 
you. This, translated into Christian language, is 
St. Paul's injunction; "Take heed to thyself and to 
the doctrine." 



BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND MOST REVEREND WILLIAM 
THOMSON, D.D., LORD ARCHBISHOP OF YORK. 



IV. 

ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 

A SERMON is a discourse on God, and duty, and 
heaven, and hell. It is the work of one who 
has made these high subjects his own study, and 
whose heart has felt the comfort and joy and fear 
that belong to them. Those whom he addresses 
are to learn of him the things that belong to their 
peace and to eternal life. Under these conditions 
the sermon must, one would suppose beforehand, 
be solemn and affecting, loving and urgent, full of 
persuasion, warning, and rebuke. Not one sentence 
should go forth without doing its share of persuasion. 
Every one should bear witness to the presence of a 
speaker earnestly desirous of saving some soul from 
death, or of sowing in some heart the germs of truth 
and peace. For that type of sermon which treats of 
these great interests in tame and indifferent tones 
there would seem to be no place under con- 
ditions such as these. We are brought by the 
text, perhaps, to the bier of the widow's son at 
Nain ; and there we hear with amazement that "the 

6 



8? HOMILETICAL LECTURES. p.-ECT. IV. 

miracles ot our i^ord divide tnemselves naturally into 
three classes ; " and for ten minutes out of twenty-five 
we are occupied in dividing miracles into classes, 
leaving the widow's tears to dry on her cheeks, and 
the spectacle of a Divine compassion to await oqr 
inspection when our frigid classification shall be 
complete. In the English pulpit, filled by a race far 
more disposed by temperament to disguise an emotion 
that it feels than to assume one of which it is in- 
sensible, the fault of speaking in a cold indifferent 
tone about the subjects that are most full of the 
materials of emotion is likely to prevail ; at present 
it seems to frustrate the preaching of many a young 
man, whose heart is in his work, and whose life is 
shaped by his convictions. There is a wall of crystal / 
between him and his hearers ; some light passes 
through it, but hardly any heat. 

A sermon is a proclamation of the kingdom of 
heaven to sinful men, who though sinful are capable 
of being moved by hopes of deliverance and by an 
example of perfection. Such matter requires a certain 
elevation of style and feeling, A tame and spiritless 
discourse, coldly uttered, as if the Word of Life were 
as dull as last year's almanack, as formal as the 
publication of banns, may even do positive harm, 
coming after lofty psalms and impressive lessons and 
solemn prayers, and abate the glow of emotion which 
these may have kindled. We do not want a sermon 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 83 

that shall break the bruised reed of compunction, 
or quench the smoking flax of divine love in the 
heart. The conception of a sermon is quite opposite 
to this. Alone of the parts of the Chui J ch Services it 
belongs to the present time. Its function is to bring 
their venerable truths into immediate contact with 
the understanding, the feelings, and the will of those 
who are present. It turns the truths of history into 
living personal lessons. The words, "Thou art the 
man," strike like a dart into our hearts, as once into 
the heart of the prophet king. A certain elevation of 
thought, feeling, and utterance befits such a purpose. 
The message comes from God, and concerns the 
eternal interests of those who receive it. Need one 
say more to lift the subject into a position of unique 
importance, and to claim for it the highest treatment ? 

I beg to offer a few hints on the feelings evoked 
by preaching, and on the manner of evoking them, 
though I am but a learner myself. 

1. In most cases we should take care that the 
preliminary exposition of the text should be brief, 
compact, and strictly relevant to what follows. The 
mistake of squandering the moments of best atten- 
tion of our hearers in preliminary remarks is often 
made by very young preachers, from a fear that 
the material at command may run short. When 
the text has shown us Lazarus at the rich mans 
gate, a tame dissertation on kinds of parables is 



84 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IV. 

hard to pardon. When the shadows of the olives 
of Gethsemane are closing over us, a learned dis- 
cussion on Gospel harmony is enough to wound 
our sense of fitness. If the text requires a few 
remarks to make its meaning clear, and to set it 
in the light of its proper context, let all that is 
actually needed be said, as by one who must clear 
the ground, and then pass upward to the heights 
of his subject. Sometimes it would be an advantage 
after the sermon is written to return to the exordium 
in order to prune away that which is needless, and 
to give it life and vigour by the process. 

2. We are now in mid career, striving to gain 
souls for Christ, to quicken in them the spark of 
divine life, and to set them thirsting after perfec- 
tion in holiness. Our foe on the right hand is 
pretension, and on the left hand " commonplace." 
Equally fatal it seems to be to call out the com- 
ment that the preacher is showing of what eloquence 
he is capable, or that he falls below his subject 
into "bald disjointed chat." The preacher, says 
Marhaineke, " should strive for nothing more than 
this, — to make his personal character in no way 
injurious to the cause which he wishes to promote ; 
to divest himself of everything which can offend 
the tastes or prejudices of his people, whatever 
may be the degree of their education ; and also, 
yielding to the noble influence of his theme, to 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 85 

sink himself, when it is possible, entirely out of 
sight under the magnificence and irresistible power 
of the truth which he proclaims."* But, on the 
other side, every sentence should have the impress 
of the subject. "The style," says Buffon, "is the 
man," and the man now speaking has in his heart 
the welfare of souls. His words must be suitable 
to such a purpose. Cold and tame expressions will 
persuade the hearers that the man is not kindled 
by the fire of his message ; florid and affected 
sentences will suggest that he puts himself above 
his subject, and seeks his own glory. Between 
these two perils, the mode of expression which the 
preacher will aim at is that subdued style which, 
while it never sinks into mere commonplace, allows of 
occasional ornament, and of rising to a higher level 
of eloquence when the points that excite intense 
interest require it. Such a style will be quite simple, 
but it will never cease to be oratorical. " Prose 
is words in their right places, and poetry the best 
words in the best places;" so says Coleridge, and 
I am inclined to vindicate for oratory its claim to 
the latter description. A word used with singular 
felicity ; the frequent employment of metaphorical 
words ; the interwoven phrases of Holy Scripture, 
which, however high and poetical, will not seem 
out of place on the sober background of a seemly 
* Quoted in Schott, HomzletiL 



86 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. IV. 

style ; the allusion to common incidents of the 
market and the newspaper, which are saved from 
vulgarity by a few slight touches of expression, 
(and they ought to be few and slight,) — these work 
in easily with a style of speaking, the general level 
of w r hich is removed from triteness and vulgarity 
by a few well-marked steps, and which yet never 
descends from the regions of oratory.. The sermon 
is in this respect like the church in which it is 
delivered ; it must have its appropriate furniture 
and ornament in order to preserve the feeling of 
reverence : we could not bear to recognise the 
household basin in the font, nor the carpet of our 
sea-side lodgings on the floor. A style somewhat 
raised above the common level denotes a strain of 
thought and feeling somewhat raised. And the 
first advance is gained in subduing the feelings of 
the hearers, when the preacher has brought them 
into the belief that he himself is impressed with the 
dignity of his subject, and approaches it with awe 
and reverence, as one who treads on holy ground. 

It is customary to say that the style of the orator 
must never pass into that of the poet. There is 
some truth in this ; but it is less applicable to 
preaching than to any other style of oratory, be- 
cause the books out of which we have to teach are 
in great part works of the highest strain of poetry. 
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 87 

panteth my soul for Thee, God " (Psalm xlii. 1). 
" The mountains and the hills shall break forth 
before you into singing" (Isa. lv. 12). A discourse 
which derives some of its colour from expressions 
like these may and will lose sight from time to 
time of the line that separates prose from poetry ; 
and the most fastidious taste will not be offended. 

The distinction of style, then, for which I am 
pleading here, will be gained by an apt use of words, 
by occasional ornament, by a colouring of Scriptural 
thought and expressions, and, above all, by the 
evidence of a purpose not to spend force upo:i 
trivial points, but to move always forward toward 
the impression that we desire to make. 

But whilst careful study of style will be of the 
greatest use to those who, deeply impressed with 
the importance of their office, and with love for 
God and love for souls, are yet unable to give 
adequate expression to their feelings, and from cold - 
ness of manner, or shyness, or want of imagination 
fail to do justice to their own purpose, I must say 
that without the purpose of heart no amount of 
study, no beauty of style, will make a successful 
preacher. The hollowness of artificial preaching 
will be detected by all religious minds, and will 
repel them. An audience may still be kept together, 
of those who admire fine language, or gorgeous 
imagery, or fertility of illustration. But to touch 



83 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IV. 

souls, a soul that is itself touched by God's love 
is the most powerful agent. To plead God's cause 
the preacher must have God's voice speaking to 
his own heart. 

Out of these two factors, the inward love and the 
power of expressing it, comes that which has been 
termed unction — so difficult to define — so potent 
to persuade : which one writer describes as u the 
affecting, penetrating, interesting manner, flowing 
from a strong sensibility of heart in the preachei 
to the importance of the truths which he delivers, 
and an earnest desire that they should make a full 
impression on the heart of his hearers." This quality 
of a sermon " produces its effect without awakening 
our consciousness of its presence. We feel, we 
perceive, that we are moved : we can hardly assign 
a reason why." 

Perhaps it hardly suits our limits to give ex- 
amples of the treatment which produces this kind 
of impression ; yet one or two may be permitted. 
Chrysostom is to speak of the irregular attendance 
of Christians at the services. He begins thus : " You 
are all to-day cheerful, and I alone am dejected; 
for when I look over this spiritual sea, and behold 
this boundless wealth of the Church, and then con- 
sider that as soon as the festival is over this multi- 
tude will start away from us, I am pierced with 
grief that the Church, having brought forth so 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 89 

many children, cannot enjoy them at each assem- 
bling, but only at a festival. How great would be 
the spiritual exultation, how great the joy, how 
great the glory of God, how great the spiritual 
feast, if on each occasion of assembling we could 
see the enclosures of the Church thus filled ! "* This 
is very different from a cold remark upon the 
fluctuations of the congregation — from a dry sugges- 
tion that church-going is a duty. The very first 
words place the preacher in a true relation to his 
hearers, as a shepherd of souls, yearning for his 
Master's sake to gather them in, and keep them 
safe together. This opening is conceived in the 
spirit of the Master's own words, "Ye will not come 
unto me that ye might have life " (John v. 40). 

Again, Massillon's sermon on " the Small Number 
of the Elect " is a fine example of this kind. He 
begins by declining to discuss the abstract doctrine 
that few persons are saved. This could be proved 
easily from Scripture. " But what would it serve 
to limit the fruits of this instruction to the single 
point of setting forth how few persons will be 
saved ? I should make the danger known without 
instructing you how to avoid it. I should show 
you, with the prophet, the sword of the wrath of 
God suspended over your heads, without assisting 
you to escape the threatened blow : I should alarm, 
• Sermon on Baptism of Christ, ii. 433. 



90 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IV. 

but not instruct the sinner I wish not, in 

naming to you the causes which render salvation 
so rare, to make you generally conclude that few 
will be saved, but to bring you to ask yourselves 
if, living as you live, you can hope to be saved. 
Who am I ? What am I doing for heaven ? And 
what can be my hopes in eternity? I propose no 
other order in a matter of such importance. What m 
are the causes which render salvation so rare ? " 
Here, too, the hearers are at once lifted out of 
the region of mere instruction into that of love. 
From the first word of that remarkable discourse 
to the very last, the preacher is seeking the flock, 
to save them ; and the background of every sentence 
is that God is love, that the speaker is touched by 
some of that Divine love, and that for the hearers 
outside the light of that love there can be no life, 
no hope. 

Cicero says of Callidius, that of the three parts of 
which eloquence consists, instructing and delighting 
and moving, he enjoyed the power of the first two in 
an eminent degree, but was quite wanting in the last 
and most important — that of touching and exciting 
the minds of his hearers. This verdict applied to a 
Christian preacher would be the severest condem- 
nation. To speak of heaven and hell, of God, of sin, 
of remorse and penitence, without inspiring emotion 
of any kind, would be a miserable exercise of the 



LECT. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 91 

mind. Array every precept of Holy Scripture that 
belongs to your subject, and support them with every 
scriptural example ; exhaust, if possible, all the orna- 
ments of composition to decorate your sermon ; yet 
if from first to last there is no unction, if you are not 
carried forth out of yourself towards those souls — 
so dear to Christ — who are looking up to you for 
spiritual food, what gain is there to your Master or 
to you ? Many a good man amongst us lies under 
the reproach of Callidius, that he seems to aim at 
instruction and at pleasing, without attempting to 
awaken and rouse his people. But I fear we must 
go a step farther, and must say that the Christian 
preacher cannot stand still in the position of Callidius. 
If we cannot move our hearers, I do not say to tears 
or groanings, but to any holy love, to any noble 
endeavour, we shall not long be able to instruct them 
or delight them. The hungering soul, failing of food, 
will no longer expect it from us ; and will turn with 
weariness even from the truest aphorism or the aptest 
figure of speech. An eminent preacher lately taken 
from us, on being told that a somewhat frigid speaker 
" always spoke good sense," replied, " But I cannot 
bear good sense when it is delivered to me in that 
form." Many a modern hearer would be obliged to 
admit that the very texts of Holy Scripture cited in 
the pulpit had become a weariness to him, from the 
dulness of the setting in which they were presented. 



92 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IV 

And what a failure and defeat, to ascend into that 
holy place to declare God's law, yet so to handle it 
that the fire and the thunder exceeding loud which 
belonged to its origin are all forgotten, and to reduce 
it in our feeble hands to a position of less interest 
than a nurse's tale or the petty records of the day's 
journal ! A pulpit is no place for dissertations, nor 
for dramatic display. It is a place for instruction, 
indeed, for pleasure and delight; but the primary 
condition is that a sermon should bear about it the 
stamp of its great purpose, to teach the sinful how to 
love God, and those who have already repented how 
to love Him more. We hear much now about parochial 
missions ; and I, like others, have seen and thankfully 
acknowledge their beneficial effects. But does not 
one great part of their success arise from this, that 
they call men to repent more directly and urgently 
than the present fashion of preaching has allowed ? 
And if so, might we not turn our own regular minis- 
trations into a mission, by preaching every Sunday 
Christ's great love and man's great need ? It has 
been observed more than once, that # after a preacher 
has learnt to conduct missions, his ordinary style of 
preaching is much improved. He has acquired 
directness, emotion, purpose, love. And if, as in 
many cases, the love is really there, locked up in 
the preacher's heart by the long frost of shyness 
and reserve, there is the more reason that it should 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 93 

get forth ; there is the more occasion to pray for the 
warm beams of the Spirit of God to thaw the icy 
barrier, and let the stream of love flow free. 

3. Every part, then, of a sermon is to be pene- 
trated by emotion, by sober, real, chastened emotion. 
There is no need to observe that what is usually called 
emotion could not be sustained or tolerated through- 
out the whole of a long sermon ; but the level of the 
discourse must be such that from it the heights of 
feeling and of passion may be easily and naturally 
reached. Reverence for God, love for souls, and a 
deep sense of his own responsible position, are 
feelings that attend the preacher throughout his 
course. The emotion on which the preacher must 
rely is that mild beneficent warmth of love that 
glows throughout the whole discourse, rather than 
the more passionate utterances on which he may 
venture only when the subject strictly warrants them. 
There is some risk when we attempt to be pathetic 
that we may excite a pity, not for our subject, but 
for ourselves (miserationem non rei sed sui excitant). 
The greatest caution and judgment are required for 
dealing with the passions of an audience ; and a 
young preacher may well be pardoned — may be 
praised — who declines to attempt these higher flights 
until he has acquired a knowledge of the human 
heart and the confidence that experience alone can 
give. The passions that belong to preaching are 



94 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IV. 

chiefly these, — fear, hope, love, zeal, compassion, 
reverence. Do not suppose that I am about to 
adventure an essay on each. I only offer a few hints, 
such as — 

(i.) Do not wear out the effect of the terror of 
God's wrath by frequent recourse to the minatory 
style of preaching. Love will draw when fear will 
not drive. We must show faithfully that there is 
a hell as well as a heaven ; but the power of the 
Gospel lies in its hopes and in its love. When you 
do speak of the terrors of Divine wrath, let it be 
so that men may see how much they have awed 
you, how you shrink from proclaiming them without 
adding motives of love to diminish their scathing 
power. A modern preacher, about to quote Gods 
sentence on the judgment day against the wicked, 
stops short, and says, "Depart and flee for your 
life ; it is not too late."* A French preacher, bidding 
farewell to his congregation after a long ministry 
in an evil time, deplores the growth of infidelity 
and the corruptions of life which he has been 
predicting with warning voice as from the mountain- 
top. " All is lost — religion, morals, the State. You 
only regarded my prophecies as the exaggeration 
of an extravagant zeal ; and even I did not count 

on their being accomplished so early What 

then remains for us to predict as we descend at 

* Wolfe. 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 95 

last from the mountain ? We speak it even with 
eroans .... the vengeance of God. Dearest 
brethren, what a heritage we leave you ! that 
we could turn it away by any vows and prayers of 
ours!"* For another and more forcible example 
I would fain make myself indebted to Fenelon. 
It is from a sermon on the propagation of the 
Gospel, preached when he was only thirty-four 
years old. After surveying the progress of Chris- 
tianity in the world, he returns to regard that 
which calls itself Christianity in France in the year 
1685, when he is preaching. Things were not 
much better with us at that most shameful time of 
our history. "Cowardly and unworthy Christians! 
through you Christianity is misunderstood and 
despised ; through you the name of God is blas- 
phemed among the Gentiles; you are a mere stone 
of stumbling at the gate of the house of God, to 
trip up those who come to seek Jesus Christ. . . . 
Fashion has become the tyrannical law to which 
all others are sacrificed. The last duty is that of 
paying one's debts. Preachers dare no longer plead 
for the poor in presence of a throng of creditors, 
whose clamorous demands reach the very sky. 
Thus justice puts charity to silence; and justice 

herself is refused a hearing Daily one invents 

new necessities to sanction passions the most odious. 
* The Abbe Poulle, 



96 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IV. 

That which forty years ago would have been a 
scandalous ostentation in those of the highest 
position, has become seemly and suitable even for 
the middle class. Detestable refinement of the 
present day ! Misery and luxury increase with 
equal steps ; men are profuse of their own wealth, 
and they covet that of others. Is this Christianity ? 
Let us depart at once into some other land, where 
we shall be no longer obliged to behold such 
disciples of Jesus Christ. O Christian faith, avenge 
thyself. Leave an eternal night upon the face of 
this earth, covered with a deluge of iniquities. 
Great God ! what do I see ? where do we stand ? 
The day of ruin approaches. The last days hasten 
on. What shall I say to Thee, O Lord ? Re- 
member our misery and Thy great mercy." You 
can imagine how an audience, already taken captive 
by the powerful eloquence of the early part of 
the discourse, bent under the pitiless storm of this 
rebuke ; how it became necessary, so to speak, to 
send some words of hope down into the depths of 
that humiliation : " Remember our misery and Thy 
great mercy." 

(2.) These appeals to shame and to fear ought 
indeed always to be the prelude to a message of 
hope. You may safely say to yourself that every 
man in your congregation, whose mind is not 
already stayed upon God, has within him, more 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 97 

or less deeply seated, a desire and yearning for 
something better than he has got. And if you 
did say that to yourself, and lay it down as the 
condition of all your preaching, never for a moment 
to be forgotten, we should have fewer aimless 
sermons, fewer of those efforts to while away an 
inevitable half-hour in good talk, which shall pass 
smoothly with flattering touch over the sleek skin 
of easy consciences, and be in no danger of ruffling 
in the wrong direction the leonine and ursine hides 
of the wicked. Our work is peace on earth to man, 
but a real peace, and not a slumber. Our work is to 
open to man a vista of holiness and happiness which 
no earthly career can offer him. Our aim is to bring 
man back to that Master whom he has left, and for 
whose service he has ever since been longing even 
more than he knew. This is the reason that men 
gather round the pulpit still : men need to be 
told of their want. They do not come to hear 
the highest arguments; masterpieces of argument 
they have at home upon their shelves. Nor do 
they come expecting from you the force of a 
Demosthenes or the pathos of a Massillon. They 
want you to tell them of the more excellent way. 
They want to catch again the spirit of some hymn 
that their mother taught them, and to have renewed 
the mood of an old penitence or of a scrupulous 
fear of some vice, with whose face they have since 

7 



98 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IV. 

become familiar. Look upon them, with their 
hunger and their thirst, all the more touching if 
they are in a measure unconscious. Give them 
the hope that they require. Tell them the meaning 
of the life of Jesus — that He suffered that we might 
cease from sin * Repeat His message to them that 
labour and are heavy-laden ; there is that in the 
conscience of your people that will give a point to 
your teaching. "How long/' says Augustine, "will 
you seek pleasures that cannot give you happiness ? 
When will you terminate your restlessness by ceasing 
from your crimes ? What more do you need to 
undeceive you as to the world, beyond the expe- 
rience that you have in yourself of the weariness 
and the misery that you feel in serving it ? Say 
whether it is more sweet to give yourself to Me, 
and whether I am able to satisfy the soul that 
possesses Me." 

(3.) " Appeals to compassion should be brief/' it 
has been said ; " for nothing, dries more quickly 
than a tear."f And a great master of rhetoric 
warns us not to attempt the pathetic kind of 
oratory, unless we are conscious of great powers. % 
It is certain that a failure in an attempt to move 
to tears is more than a mere failure ; it chills and 
even disgusts. At the same time, every preacher 

* 1 Peter iv. 1, 2. t Cicero, Ad Her. ii. 31. 

% Quint, vi. I. 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PREACHING. 99 

must attempt at times to appeal to the compas- 
sion of his people. He is the appointed pleader 
for the needy, the sick, for them that sit in dark- 
ness ; and he must do his best for these unhappy 
clients. But he must not think it a first condition 
to assume a pathetic manner. There need not 
be a tear in his eye, nor even what the French 
call "tears in the voice." Anything like a forced 
manner, in subjects of this kind, would be fatal. 
Many of us know how painful is that lachrymose 
tone which sometimes becomes habitual to a preacher. 
The great point for a young preacher is to let his 
subject, rather than his manner, work on the 
feelings. Let any one read the story of Joseph 
receiving his brethren in Egypt, and let him con- 
sider the effect upon that story that would be 
produced by comments and ornaments of a rheto- 
rician ; he will then admit that a simple narrative 
of facts may make the highest eloquence. A few 
minute touches in a picture of misery and sorrow 
will often be enough to give a fresh impression 
to the hearers of the sorrow to which they are 
hardened by custom, and will open their hearts 
to compassion once more. And there is no pre- 
sumption and no great risk in describing ; the 
youngest preacher may attempt it. Force the 
one part of mankind to learn how the other part 
lives and suffers, and you have the command of 



ioo H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IV. 

the feelings of the more fortunate. Ignorance is 
the cause of much of the hardness of men. Let 
us see the interior of the poor man's squalid room, 
where a whole family lives and works, suffers and 
squabbles. The condition of children in our fac- 
tories some time ago, white slaves and heathen- 
Christians, needed but to be stated to draw out 
burning tears. The state of Africa to this hour, 
where men have shown how nearly they could 
realize, by vice and mutual murder, an earthly 
hell; the devastation made by the curse of drink, 
which threatens the utter ruin of our people : 
these speak to us best through facts, well-chosen 
and simply told. We may never be able to reach 
the level of Augustine exhorting the people of Hippo 
to give up the abuses which defiled their solemn 
feasts, nor that of Massillon in his famous sermon 
on the famine ; but we are all human, and can 
feel a human interest in other men that suffer, 
and even the more timid and less eloquent of 
us may point to the chains and wounds of our 
brethren, and may show that we feel for sorrows 
such as theirs. But we can best study pathos/ 
at the foot of the cross of Christ. " Behold and 
see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow" 
(Lam. i. 12). There is none like it. Here con- 
template the mystery of suffering. "Behold the 
man " It is only a crown of thorns that He 



Lect. IV.] ON THE EMOTIONS IN PRE A CUING. 101 

wears ; but with that crown comes to Him a power 
that the heavenly crown which He bore before His 
humiliation did not confer. "In the heavenly crown," 
says Krummacher, " He could say nothing else to 
a Magdalen, or publican, or a paralytic, than ' Depart 
from me.' But in His crown of thorns it is in His 
power to say to those guilty souls, * Go in peace ; 
your sins are forgiven you/ " Great mystery indeed ! 
Out of suffering springs a fountain of relief for 
suffering, and sorrow and wretchedness are hallowed 
for evermore to every minister of the suffering Lord. 

One fear has haunted me throughout the prepa- 
ration of this paper — lest I should seem, in treating 
of the mechanism and adornment of the sermon, to 
put too much in the background the great essen- 
tials of a sermon, the trust in God, and the love of 
souls, that should rule in the preacher's heart. I 
have ventured to think that good men sometimes 
preach bad sermons, but I do not forget that bad 
men will never preach good ones. Without real 
love of God and man, the congregation will at last 
discover that the warmth that perhaps for a moment 
deceived them is but the crackling of thorns under 
the pot, and the ornaments of speech are but as 
a wreath of artificial flowers round the livid face 
of a corpse. "The only source of unction in 
preaching," it has been well said, " is the spirit 
of regeneration and of grace. It is a gift that is 



102 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. IV. 

spent and lost, unless we renew this sacred fire, 
which must always be kept burning : and that which 
preserves it is the cross within the soul — self-denial, 
prayer, and penitence."* 

For a race of great preachers we should have 
to seek in vain in this Church and generation. 
But we thank Almighty God that there are many 
whose teaching is eagerly received by large con- 
gregations ; and, now as ever, the true success is 
not to the eloquent and poetical preacher, but to 
him who shows the true unction from above, and 
whose words, often the simplest and least adorned, 
bear on them no mark of distinction but this — that 
they are intended to win souls for Christ. 

* Dutoit Membrini, in Vinet, p. 199. 



\ui €omtxinhn a IpMtr Sermmt ? 

BV THE RIGHT REVEREND HARVEY GOODWIN, D.D., LORD 
BISHOP OF CARLISLE. 



V. 

WHAT CONSTITUTES A PLAIN SERMON? 

WHEN a clergyman stands up in a pulpit for 
the purpose of preaching a sermon, there is 
one thing which, beyond all others, he must try to 
do — namely, to convey the thoughts which are in 
his own mind to the minds of those who listen. 

I shall assume that the clergyman has some 
thoughts, that these thoughts are good, and such 
as his great Master would approve; I shall assume, 
moreover, that he has an earnest desire to convey 
those thoughts to his people, that he wishes to 
preach, not to prate, and that he has a sufficient 
sense of the importance of the office which he 
holds and of the Gospel message which he has to 
convey ; and, once more, I shall assume that his 
congregations are of that mixed kind which is most 
common, having only a few hearers well educated, 
a good many badly educated, and a residuum not 
educated at all, with the usual infusion of careless- 
ness and worldliness, and also the hopeful element 
of earnestness and devotion in a heart here and a 



106 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

heart there. I shall make these assumptions, because 
I wish to make it clear what the ground is upon 
which I am going to build ; and assuming thus a 
clergyman of the right sort, and a congregation of 
the ordinary kind, I say that what he has to do is 
to convey his thoughts to them — for this is the very 
end and purpose of a sermon ; and in order that 
the sermon may be an effective vehicle of all his 
thoughts, it must be above all things plain. Hence 
the question arises, which I have undertaken to try 
to answer, — What constitutes a Plain Sermon ? 

There is a difficulty in ascertaining the extent to 
which any given sermon has proved itself to be 
really plain, arising from this circumstance — namely, 
that the clergyman has generally no opportunity of 
asking his people that question which our Lord 
once put to His disciples, u Have ye understood all 
these things ? " The sermon is preached, and the 
people go home, and as a general rule the clergy- 
man has no means of knowing whether the thoughts 
which he wished to convey were really conveyed. 
I have myself been sometimes surprised to discover 
that expositions, which I had believed to be clear 
and plain, not only did not convey the meaning 
intended, but to some at least of my people, and 
those not the least intelligent, conveyed the exact 
opposite of that which I had intended to convey. 
A clergyman therefore has to bear in mind that in 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON? 107 

this respect he works very much in the dark ; and 
herein consists the difference between preaching and 
catechizing, and the great superiority of the latter, 
where it may be had. It would be an excellent 
improvement upon the ordinary pulpit practice, if 
the clergyman could do that which I have heard 
Indian missionaries speak of as not unusual in 
native congregations — stop suddenly after some sen- 
tence in a sermon, and ask some one to explain 
what has just been said. I fear, however, there are 
few English congregations in which this would be 
possible. The difficulty of carrying away the chief 
drift and meaning of an address of (say) half an 
hour long, which has been delivered continuously, 
and it may be rapidly, is very great under any 
circumstances. Tutors and professors at the Uni- 
versities thoroughly well know this ; and a good 
teacher teaches very much by questions and exami- 
nations ; and no one can be aware how imperfect 
and shallow and confused his knowledge upon any 
subject, on which he has heard a lecture, or perhaps 
read a book, really is, till he tries to reproduce his 
knowledge. 

But I need not pursue these remarks any further. 
My purpose in making them is to impress as forcibly 
as I may, at the very outset of my lecture, the 
extreme importance of making a sermon plain ; 
concerning other qualities there may be differences 



io8 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. V. 

of opinion : some may like a sermon to be short, 
some to be long ; some may prefer a written sermon, 
some an unwiitten, or (as is sometimes called) an 
extempore sermon ; some may like one style of 
delivery, and some another ; some may take plea- 
sure in what may be called doctrinal sermons, and 
some in those which are more emphatically practical; 
but there is one point on which all will agree — namely, 
that a sermon must be plain ; and by plain I would 
be understood to mean that which has already been 
offered as a definition of the word— namely, that the 
sermon shall be such as will convey to the minds 
of the congregation the thoughts which are in the 
mind of the preacher. I come, then, now to the 
question proposed, What constitutes a Plain Sermon ? 
I shall endeavour to answer this question under a 
number of different heads, but I shall not tell you 
how many. I myself know how many there will be, 
but I do not intend to let you into the secret ; and 
this partly in order that I may take occasion by 
the way to give a hint to young sermon-writers 
\ concerning heads — namely, that it is not always wise 
to explain how many and what your heads will be. 
Paley, I think, somewhere says that a preacher who 
describes beforehand all that he is going to do, is 
like a guide who, in commencing a walk, explains 
to his party all the difficulties of the road. Let 
him only start and guide his party well, and the 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON? 109 

whole excursion will seem pleasant ; whereas, if 
the journey be described too carefully in the first 
instance, the party, or at least some of them, may 
feel a sense of weariness creeping over them almost 
before the start is made. For this reason, then, I 
shall not reveal to you of how many heads my 
paper will consist. Let it suffice for the present 
that my first head shall be — 

I. Plain Words. 

Words are to a sermon, or, indeed, to any kind 
of speech, what bricks or stones are to a house : 
they are the material of which it is constructed ; 
and in order that a sermon may be a plain sermon, 
it must above all things be composed of plain words. 

What are plain words ? They are, according to 
the definition which I have already endeavoured to 
attach to the adjective plain, words which convey 
to the mind of the person addressed the thought 
which is in the mind of the speaker. Hence it does 
not follow that a word is a really plain word, because 
it happens to be common or because it happens to 
be Saxon ; for example, most church-going people 
would understand what was meant by an edifying 
sermon, and many of them would be a little sur- 
prised by hearing the phrase a bailding-iLp sermon ; 
and yet edify is Latin, and build up is Saxon. The 
fact is, that what may be called technical words 
(and the word edify belongs to this class) are far 



no HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

more comprehensive and full of meaning than more 
common words, provided only that they are under- 
stood. Indeed, some of the more abstruse doctrines 
of the faith, like the propositions of science, can only 
be clearly enunciated in technical terms, and these 
terms, which convey the intended meaning to the 
initiated, are dark as night to those who have not 
mastered them. 

Let me illustrate this point, which is one of much 
importance, by turning for a moment from divinity 
to mathematics. I take a volume of Cambridge 
examination papers, and I pick out at random such 
questions as these : — 

Prove that corresponding to a point of maximum 
or minimum curvature in any curve there is a cusp 
in the evolute. 

Find the equation of the path of a projectile in 
vacuo. 

Describe the phenomena of Newton's rings, and 
show how they may be accounted for on the theory 
of interferences. 

Now, the peculiarity of such pieces of English is 
this — that, as the vehicle of thought between the 
examiner and the examinee, they are perfect; the 
examiner knows perfectly what he means to pro- 
pound, and the examinee (unless he is destined 
to be plucked) knows precisely what it is that has 
been propounded ; but, on the other hand, to those 



Lect. V.] WHA T FORMS A PLAIN SERMON? 1 1 1 

who have not studied the subjects to which the 
questions relate, the language is so much gibberish. 
To say that you could not alter English of this kind 
with advantage, is to say but little ; what is true is 
this — that you could not, in any altered form of 
words, make your meaning intelligible at all. The 
words curvature, cusp, evolute, equation, projectile, 
Newton's rings, interferences, each and all convey 
a definite meaning, and carry in a compact form 
a whole volume of definitions and postulates and 
axioms and geometrical and physical investigations ; 
and, apart from words like these, scientific discussions 
would be impossible. 

That which I have thus illustrated by reference to 
the case of mathematical science, is true in the case 
of divinity ; and what the preacher has to ask is, I 
think, not so much whether a given word be Saxon, 
or Latin, or Greek, or what not, but whether it is a 
vehicle to the mind of his people of the thought 
which it conveys to him. A technical word under- 
stood is a very powerful machine ; but a technical 
word not understood is mere idle breath. Let me 
take an instance from recent controversy. 

The antithesis of objective and subjective, in the 
sense in which these words are used in German 
philosophy, has of late years been introduced into 
the Eucharistic controversy ; and to those who under- 
stand the terms, great definiteness has been thereby 



H2 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V 

rendered possible, and on this account controver- 
sialists value the terms ; but I suspect that the 
number of persons who are capable of using them 
intelligently is extremely small, and I am quite sure 
that to the vast majority of Christians they convey 
no meaning whatever, except, perhaps, that objective 
is supposed to mean Popery, and subjective to mean 
Protestantism. 

Hence I think that in considering whether a word 
should be permitted to do duty in a sermon, the 
primary question is whether, having reference to the 
character of the congregation to which the sermon is 
addressed, it is likely to convey to the hearers the 
meaning which is in the mind of the preacher. Of 
course, in doing this, the wants of the simplest 
members of the congregation should be most con- 
sidered ; but, in considering them, the wants of the 
most educated need not be neglected. This mixture 
of people, who are to be fed with the same food, does 
in reality constitute one great difficulty of sermons, 
whether in town or country, as regards, not words 
only, but other matters as well. It is a difficulty 
which cannot be altogether got over, but may be 
made less formidable than it seems, by careful con- 
sideration and honest efforts. 

Let me illustrate a point to which I have already 
drawn attention — namely, the plainness of words as 
depending upon their Saxon origin — by reference to 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON? 113 

the passage which I have just quoted from Professor 
Blunt. It is a portion of a paragraph in which he 
urges strongly that " the language of a sermon to a 
country congregation should be Saxon, not of Latin 
or French extraction." The passage is, I think, 
undoubtedly a good piece of racy English, such as 
Professor Blunt knew so well how to write ; and yet, 
in the ten lines of which the passage consists, I find 
without difficulty as many as twenty-five Latin or 
French words. You may say he was writing for the 
readers of the Quarterly Review, and not for a village 
congregation : just so, but this shows that the rule 
of using Saxon to some congregations does not well 
apply, and even to a village congregation I do not 
know what Saxon substitutes you could easily give 
for such words as these: congregation, editcated, pos- 
sible, edifying, squire, vulgarity, intended, etc., etc. 

Mr. Burgon has said, in his " Treatise on the 
Pastoral Office" (p. 176), "We have heard too much 
of the importance of using Anglo-Saxon words in 
addressing the uneducated. It seems that to acquire 
a great command of idiomatic English should rather 
be our aim. Words are not therefore easy because 
they are of Saxon derivation, or difficult because 
they proceed originally from a Latin source. The 
humblest auditors, again, are familiar with Bible 
English : so that a copious vocabulary is ever at 
hand, which there is only too much danger lest the 

8 



1 14 HO MILE TICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

preacher should abuse by an over-liberal use of 
familiar Bible phrases. To suppose that mono- 
syllables will of necessity conduce to plainness is a 
kindred mistake. An abstract thought will remain 
unintelligible, although expressed entirely in words 
of one syllable." 

It would be a very good exercise for a young 
preacher to take a sermon, either his own or a printed 
one, and count in it the words which ought not to be 
there. And it would be a true kindness on the part 
of a friend to note words which appear to him not 
generally intelligible, and send them to the preacher, 
or rather give them to him privately for his con- 
sideration. 

And more generally, I would express to young 
preachers or speakers my conviction that the study 
of words is not only infinitely entertaining under the 
guidance of such a man as Archbishop Trench, or 
Professor Max Muller, or M. Brachet, but may be 
made of infinite use in the practice of English com- 
position. Take any word with which you meet, and 
whose structure and history you do not know, and 
follow it up until you have made yourself thoroughly 
acquainted with it in every way ; this kind of exercise 
will lead to precision of expression and accuracy of 
diction, to say nothing of avoiding vulgarity. 

II. Plain Construction. 

The next thing to the use of plain words is plain 



Lect. v.] wha t forms a PLAIN SERMON? i 1 5 

construction of sentences. I have referred to words as 
the bricks or stones of the building ; but the bricks 
or stones must be put together, or constructed, in a 
skilful and workmanlike manner; otherwise, although 
the material be good, the general result may be very- 
disappointing. The differences of mode of expres- 
sion in the styles of different men is very remarkable, 
as every one knows ; and a young preacher would do 
well to take some two or three writers, who appear to 
him to be particularly clear, and endeavour to imitate 
them, or at least examine them, and try to discover 
in what their clearness consists. French writers 
are generally good models ; there is a clearness in 
French expression which every one must have noted, 
and which it is difficult to transfer into English, 
though it is worth while sometimes to make the 
attempt. I need hardly say that the French pulpit 
has afforded an abundance of homiletical literature 
well worthy of any preacher's attention. But per- 
haps the model of clearness of construction is French 
mathematical writing; here we have a subject capable 
of the most exact expression, and requiring it ; and 
in the French language and style we have perhaps 
the most perfect organ of expression. I think it 
would do any one good to take as an exercise the 
translation of a French mathematical or scientific 
work into English. 

I do not know that obscurity of construction is 



n6 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

a very abundant fault in the English pulpit, but 
certainly there are men who contrive to put English 
words together so as to make them almost unintel- 
ligible ; I have been acquainted with men whose 
private letters have been so obscure as to require 
several perusals in order to make the reader at all 
sure as to their meaning. I have heard sermons 
which sinned much in the same manner, or rather 
worse, because in the case of a sermon several read- 
ings or hearings are impossible ■ and I could mention 
writers whose meaning is wrapped up in obscurity 
because of the involved character of their style. 

It should be remembered, as I have just now 
incidentally noticed, that a sermon cannot be heard 
more than once ; it is, as it were, a flying shot, and if 
you miss your aim, there is no second chance. Con- 
sequently a construction may be bad for a sermon, 
which is not bad in itself. Some of our great writers 
have shown their power over language by the skilful 
construction of long sentences, so cunningly and 
logically put together that the very reading of them 
is a delight. Jeremy Taylor may be taken as a 
conspicuous example. But this kind of construction, 
even if it be possible, is not suited to the pulpit: 
sentences should be short and pithy ; such as convey 
their meaning at once, so that a plain man may be 
able to take in the sense as he goes along. 

Moreover, it should be remembered that to ordi- 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON? 117 

nary persons simple enunciation of what we wish to 
say conveys a much clearer impression than a very 
elaborate statement. The more elaborate statement 
may be more fitting, if you wish to put your views 
in such a form that they may be published and be 
discussed by professional divines, and run the gaunt- 
let of the reviews ; but to simple folk who come to 
church to worship God, and learn the way to heaven, 
a simpler and less formal expression will convey 
your meaning much better. Let me illustrate what 
I mean by comparing the instructions which a man 
gives for his will with the will itself, when it has been 
manipulated by an expert into a document filling 
three or four skins of parchment. The man says, c I 
have some land in the parish of A, and I have 
personal property of various kinds amounting to 
about ^20,000 : I wish my eldest son to have the 
land, and the personal property to be divided equally 
amongst my other children.' Who could doubt what 
the man's intentions were ? But is it quite so certain 
that a plain man would arrive at the meaning, when 
it was put into that language in which experts deal, 
and which lawyers love so well ? 

It is probably on account of simplicity of con- 
struction that sermons preached extempore, if well 
preached, are more easily understood by poor folks 
than written sermons. I am not going now into 
the question of extempore versus written sermons ; but 



1 1 3 HO MILE TICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

it certainly seems to me that whereas more material 
can be packed ' into the same time by writing, the 
spoken sermon, if well spoken, is more likely to be 
simple in the construction of its sentences, and so 
by simple folk more easily understood. The phrase 
plain construction may be taken in a wider sense, and 
may be regarded as applying to the lines upon which 
the sermon is built, as the skeleton to which the 
flesh of the sermon is attached. A sermon should 
have a skeleton, as the human body has one ; but it 
should not wear it outside, like a crab or a lobster. 
The skeleton should be known to exist by the sym- 
metrical form which it gives to the whole body. In 
other words, a sermon should have a beginning, a 
middle, and an end, and should be constructed upon 
a general plan well thought out before pen is put 
to paper. This will give unity to the whole com- 
position. " Propose one point in one discourse," said 
Paley, in an ordination sermon, " and stick to it ; a 
hearer never carries away more than one impression." 
Possibly the case may be overstated in this language, 
but anyhow it is most desirable that a person going 
away from church should be able to say, The subject 
of the sermon was this, or was that ; and this result 
cannot possibly be secured without a plain construc- 
tion of the whole discourse. 

III. Plain Thoughts. 

But the two ingredients of plainness which I have 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON? 119 

touched upon hitherto are of no use without a third — 
namely, plain thoughts. Plain words and plain con- 
struction will generally accompany plain thoughts ; 
in other words, a man who thinks clearly will 
generally be able to express himself clearly; but 
clearness of expression is of no use, if the thing 
to be expressed is misty and unintelligible. 

The primary requirement, therefore, for a plain 
sermon — which is not plain in the sense in which that 
adjective is applied to the human face, namely, in the 
sense of uninteresting and unattractive — is that the 
preacher should have thought out his subject clearly 
in the first instance. This is so obvious that perhaps 
it would be scarcely worth while to mention it, if it 
were not for the purpose of reminding young preach- 
ers of the clearness which may be introduced into 
many subjects by steady thinking. Thinking is a 
thing which cannot be done in a hurry ; and if a 
sermon be put off till the day before it is preached, 
there is great danger of the subject not having been 
thought out ; but if the text be chosen, and the 
subject taken in hand in the beginning of the week 
(supposing the sermon to be intended for the follow- 
ing Sunday), it is astonishing what an amount of 
light will break in upon it before the close of the 
week arrives. 

There will be always a difference between one man 
and another with respect to clearness of thought, and 



120 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

there are some minds which never under any circum- 
stances emerge from a mist ; but I apprehend that 
the power of thinking continuously upon a subject, 
and gradually obtaining clear views of its several 
points, is just that which distinguishes the cultivated 
from the uncultivated mind ; and it is on this 
account, amongst others, that the education of the 
clerical mind is so important, and that every effort 
should be made to secure for the ministry of the 
Church men whose minds have been drilled by a 
regular course of liberal education, and have thus 
received something much deeper than a merely 
professional training. 

But I may seem to be speaking on the supposition 
that the subjects with which Christian ministers have 
to deal are very abstruse, very hard, and requiring a 
great deal of vigorous thought. This supposition, no 
doubt, is not universally true : there are hard subjects 
to be dealt with, and from which sometimes the 
preacher must not shrink ; while it is also true that 
the large majority of subjects which can be usefully 
introduced into the pulpit are simple and admit of 
simple treatment. But in truth I have not had in 
mind difficult questions of theology in what I have 
been saying concerning plain thoughts, so much as 
the more simple and ordinary ; and I would urge, with 
regard to these simple and ordinary subjects, that it is 
possible to think clearly and to think obscurely, and 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON ? 121 

that a sermon on the simplest subject cannot be 
plain with regard to the thoughts which it contains, 
unless the preacher has thought the subject into 
clearness in his own mind. I regard the parish priest 
as thinking for his people during the week, quite as 
much as thinking about them : the greater number of 
them have no time to think, and not much ability ; 
but while they are working in their various weekly 
occupations, the parish priest is thinking out his sub- 
ject for the next Sunday's teaching : it may be some 
point of doctrine which he considers it necessary 
to dwell upon, or it may be a parable supplied by 
the Gospel of the day, or it may be some subject 
suggested by the events of parish history ; but be 
it what it may, he studies it well, turns it over, and 
looks at it on this side and that, brings his daily 
reading and his daily visits to his parishioners to bear 
upon it and illustrate it, and when Sunday comes he 
will probably be surprised himself to find how clear 
his subject has become to his own mind, and he may 
have a good hope that by God's grace he will be 
able to make it clear to his people. 

IV. Plain Manner. 

The best of sermons may be spoiled by a bad 
delivery ; and therefore I will make my next head 
plain manner. This question of manner involves that 
of elocution — a subject with which I have neither 
the ability nor the time to deal completely ; but a 



122 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

few remarks may be made with regard to that side 
of elocution which is concerned with the business of 
making quite plain to the understanding of others 
the sermon which I may suppose to be already 
written and ready to be delivered. 

The first and simplest element of plainness of 
delivery is slowness, or, at all events, deliberateness 
of articulation. This is a truth which almost every 
preacher will soon find out for himself; but it is 
nevertheless worth mentioning. Using musical lan- 
guage, I should say that the proper time of a sermon 
should be andante, which means properly a moderate 
walking pace, neither running nor lagging ; there may 
occasionally be an adagio or quicker passage, and 
sometimes even an allegro or rapid delivery; but 
the standard time should be a quiet, regular, steady 
andante. 

This pace renders possible a clear and distinct 
enunciation. Clearness and distinctness are of more 
importance than loudness ; in fact, in some churches 
loud utterance is fatal to hearing ; the phenomena of 
acoustics in this matter are very strange and appa- 
rently capricious, and a preacher would do well to 
make inquiry as to what degree of loudness is found 
practically to make his voice most audible. But, as 
I have said, clearness and distinctness of enunciation 
are the points of greatest moment ; and one great 
condition of clearness is to be found in what I may 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORNS A PLAIN SERMON? 123 

call the perfect finish of each word ; each word should 
be thoroughly and carefully pronounced, and, above 
all things, the voice should not be dropped at the 
close of a sentence, but sustained in its fulness to the 
very end. 

Young clergymen who are defective in matters of 
this kind, should not be ashamed to take lessons in 
elocution, or at least to make careful reading aloud a 
regular practice ; it would not be amiss to make 
an oration occasionally, like Demosthenes, upon the 
seashore, or, at all events, in the open air, with no 
audience but the birds. For the human voice is an 
instrument, the powers of which may be expanded 
and improved ; and as public singers attain their 
marvellous power by laborious and constant practice, 
so the preacher, who has to use his voice for a much 
more glorious purpose, should think no labour lost 
which enables him to use his voice as an efficient 
instrument for conveying his message in the plainest 
manner to his people. 

A quiet, unimpassioned delivery is, I think, on the 
whole, the best ; at all events, it best suits the taste 
of sober English people. According to our parochial 
system, parishioners generally have to listen to the 
same teacher for years together ; and certainly, when 
this is the case, a quiet manner is the best, — it 
wears the longest ; an impassioned style may do as 
an occasional excitement, but a solemn and sober 



124 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

delivery is that which every wise person will prefer 
who has to listen to the same preacher week by 
week. 

And there is another point which is quite as essen- 
tial as anything I have yet mentioned for plain 
delivery, and that is the possession by the preacher 
of his sermon in such a manner that he can deliver 
it as if without a book. If a sermon be properly 
delivered, it ought to be very difficult for any one in 
the congregation to say whether the preacher has a 
book before him or not : a preacher ought never, in 
the ordinary sense of the word, to read his sermon ; 
he may have, if necessary, a manuscript before him, 
but he ought to have so far mastered his own compo- 
position, so far mandated it, according to the Scottish 
phrase, that his manuscript is rather an aid to memory 
than a book out of which he is to read his sermon. 
This kind of knowledge of what he is saying, or 
going to say, will ensure proper emphasis, and (which 
is much the same thing) that naturalness of enuncia- 
tion which belongs to ordinary speech, and which 
some people lose the moment they begin to read. It 
is not unusual to find a clergyman whose ordinary 
mode of address in his own house, or in yours, is 
easy, graceful, agreeable, and who, nevertheless, in 
preaching, appears to acquire the wooden qualities of 
the pulpit in which he stands. This ought not to be, 
and it is difficult to understand why it need be. 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON f 125 

Of course I am not supposing the case of affecta- 
tion — that is too horrible a thing to be thought of. 
I doubt not that vanity and folly can find their way 
sometimes even into the pulpit ; but these are faults 
to be dealt with, not by a lecture such as this, but by 
penitence and a sense of shame. 

One other element of plainness of manner may be 
mentioned, and it is that which will arise from a 
sense of speaking with authority ; it is difficult to 
define this manner, but it will form itself in the 
practice of a man who endeavours to realize his high 
vocation, and the magnitude of the message which 
he has to deliver. Every one knows how much 
influence depends in common affairs upon the manner 
and bearing of a man : it is not a fussy assumption 
of importance that is needed, — this makes a man 
ridiculous ; neither is it a magnification of self, or 
anything of this kind ; but there is a certain quiet, 
solemn, commanding manner, which belongs to a 
man "who is evidently speaking under a sense of 
responsibility and a determination to make his 
message known. This will rarely fail to produce 
its effect ; and, at all events, it is the most suitable 
manner for the delivery of a plain sermon. 

V. Plain Doctrine. 

Another necessary element of a plain sermon is 
i>lain doctrine : so necessary, that it might perhaps 
have been expected that I should have given it a 



126 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V 

higher or earlier position in this lecture. But, in 
truth, the doctrinal side of the question was not that 
which chiefly presented itself to my mind in preparing 
this lecture ; doctrine seems almost to demand an 
entire discussion for itself, and I merely introduce 
it here for the purpose of making two or three 
remarks, which the consideration of the elements of 
a plain sermon seems imperatively to require. 

Certainly our Lord's own sermons were very plain, 
so far as doctrine was concerned ; the Sermon on the 
Mount is a very model of plainness — there is nothing 
in it from beginning to end that can puzzle the 
simplest mind; and it was probably in part this 
feature of the sermon which led to the criticism 
passed upon it by the people, who compared it with 
the teaching of the scribes. They said that He 
"spake with authority"; but they must have also 
felt that He spake in such a way that they knew 
what He meant ; there were no puzzling questions 
concerning knotty points of the Law, which had been 
discussed and controverted over and over again by 
opposing schools, but principles laid down, and pre- 
cepts founded upon them, in a way which could not 
but commend itself to every honest heart. 

Fbllowing our Lord's example, I think a plain 
sermon should avoid as much as possible discussions 
of hard speculative points, such as the nature of 
God's predestinating decrees, and in fact the whole 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON? 127 

Calvinistic controversy, as it is called ; or the manner 
of our Lord's presence in the Holy Eucharist ; or 
curious questions connected with the world unseen ; 
and, in general, questions arising out of scientific 
controversies and theological difficulties connected 
with them. There is not one clergyman in a hundred 
who has the qualifications necessary for dealing with 
such questions properly ; and even if he had, there 
is not one hearer in a thousand who would be any 
the better for hearing the questions dealt with ; the 
discussion of such questions belongs to books rather 
than to sermons ; and if they are difficult to under- 
stand when contained in books, which can be read 
and studied, they are hopelessly unmanageable in 
a sermon addressed to an ordinary congregation ; 
and to such a congregation they are especially 
unprofitable. 

It must not be supposed, however, from what has 
just been said, that the plain doctrine of the pulpit 
is to be such as to banish mystery. I need scarcely 
say, that the doctrine which is essentially Christian 
begins with mystery and ends with mystery ; it 
begins with the Incarnation of the eternal Son of 
God, and it ends with His ascension into heaven 
and the coming of the Holy Ghost. A supernatural 
religion (and I do not know how a religion can 
deserve the name which is not supernatural) is essen- 
tially mysterious. But the enunciation of a mystery 



128 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V. 

may nevertheless be such as to be truly described as 
plain. Nothing can be more plain than the Apostles' 
Creed : all the facts of the earthly life of the Son 
of God enumerated in the most majestic simplicity ; 
and yet each fact a mystery, almost each fact a 
miracle. The doctrine may be plain, and yet it may 
rest upon mystery too deep for human thought to 
fathom. 

The discussion of the sacraments in the Church 
Catechism may perhaps be taken as a good and 
familiar specimen of plain doctrine in a very difficult 
region. It would not be easy to propose a harder 
problem than that of writing a plain essay on the 
sacraments upon a single page ; and yet this is really 
what has been done, and done with remarkable 
success, in the case of the Church Catechism. 

In truth, the extent of doctrine which can be 
advantageously introduced into ordinary parish ser- 
mons is not great. The chief points to be looked to 
are that the doctrine shall be stated correctly, and 
that it shall be enunciated clearly. For the better 
attaining of this latter point, I would suggest that for 
simple folks illustration is perhaps better than the 
most logical and precise enunciation; an illustration, 
a parable, a comparison, will rarely carry the whole 
of the truth, but the part which it does carry it will 
probably carry home. And really to be content with 
carrying home only part of the truth, one chapter of 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON? 129 

it, or one verse of it, is the true wisdom of a preacher. 
When a clergyman attempts a pulpit exposition of 
doctrine on a very complete scale, the probability is 
that his congregation will be weary before he begins, 
the almost certainty is that they will be weary before 
he has reached the end. Be content with hammering 
in one nail at a time ; and remember that one nail 
clinched will hold longer, and do more work, than 
twenty which are not driven home. 

VI. Plain Purpose. 

I now come to my last head of plainness ; and 1 
reserve this last place {ox plain purpose. 

I use the phrase plain purpose to express that 
manner of preaching which impresses a hearer with 
a strong belief that the preacher feels that he has 
something to say which is worth saying, and which 
ought to be said. This impression carries the mind 
away from the speaker to the thing spoken. It is 
obvious that the effect of a sermon ought to be, not 
an admiration of the preacher, but a sense of having 
heard something which one will never forget, or of 
having formed a good resolution for the future, or of 
having had light thrown upon some point previously 
obscure, or of having in some way or another received 
a benefit to the soul. 

All this is, I think, obvious enough ; but the diffi- 
culty in giving any precept or advice upon the subject 
consists in this — that any attempt to appear earnest, 

9 



ISO HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. V 

or impressive, or authoritative, is likely, or even sure, 
to issue in failure. " Be not as the hypocrites," or be 
not as those who act a part upon the stage, is good 
advice for all preachers. The plainness of a preacher's 
purpose must be the result of the inward persuasion 
that he has a great message to deliver, and that the 
time is short. And therefore the power of impressing 
people with the belief that a preacher has a purpose, 
and of making them understand what that purpose 
is, must be sought rather in private devotional pre- 
paration for the pulpit, than in any other way. If a 
man believes that he has a Gospel to declare which 
will do good to his brethren's souls ; and if in pre- 
paration for each sermon in which that Gospel is 
declared he humbles himself before God, and asks 
the aid of the Holy Spirit ; and if he verily believes 
himself to be a chosen vessel of God appointed to do 
this work, — surely it must be manifest from his mode 
of speech what his purpose is in speaking to the 
people ; and it seems to be well nigh impossible that 
they can fail to understand it. It cannot be denied 
that many clergymen have much to learn in this matter; 
and that not a few sermons, sufficiently good and profit- 
able in themselves, are ruined by the mode of deli- 
very ; and that almost every other defect can be easily 
pardoned, provided that the sermon is so delivered as 
to leave the impression upon the hearer's mind, " That 
man says what he means, and means what he says." 



Lect. V.] WHAT FORMS A PLAIN SERMON f 131 

But I must bring my paper to a close. Let me do 
so by recapitulating the heads of plainness which I 
have represented as necessary to constitute a plain 
sermon. 

They are :— I. Plain words. 2. Plain construction. 
3. Plain thoughts. 4. Plain manner. 5. Plain doc- 
trine. 6. Plain purpose. 

Possibly a more elaborate analysis might suggest 
other heads ; but I am quite sure that if a sermon is 
characterized only by these features of plainness, it 
will be in a very true sense a plain sermon ; and it 
will be one which the preacher may thank God that 
he has been able to preach, and the people may be 
thankful that they have been permitted to hear. 



®%* 5«parafiow af S^mcttB for Iftllagt 

BY THE REVEREND CHARLES ABEL HEURTLEY, D.D., CANON 
OF CHRIST CHURCH, MARGARET PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, 
OXFORD. 



VI. 

THE PREPARATION OF SERMONS FOR VILLAGE 
CONGREGA TIONS. 

IT is obvious that much of what is to be said on 
" The Preparation of Sermons for Village Con- 
gregations " must be applicable to sermons in general, 
whatever the character of the audience for which 
they are intended. And under this aspect I propose 
to deal with my subject, only having an eye through- 
out to the particular case of sermons of the kind 
specified. 

My remarks will have reference to written sermons, 
though, of course, here also much that must be said 
will apply equally to unwritten. I do not enter into 
the question, which of the two is to be preferred. 
But I venture to press upon young men who are just 
entering upon the work of the ministry the import- , 
ance of beginning, at all events, with written sermons, 
whatever they may think right to do after two or 
three years' experience. Cottage lectures will pro- 
bably supply sufficient opportunity for the practice 
of speaking without book. 



136 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

I. Special Prayer. 

Let us suppose, then, that we are about to prepare 
a sermon, a sermon to be preached before a village 
audience. 

What is the first thing to be done ? We must 
begin with prayer. The employment we are taking 
in hand is one of the most important in our ministry. 
We have to deliver a message from God, to speak 
in God's name to the people whom He has com- 
mitted to our charge, and that on the gravest of 
all subjects. Let us realize this, and together with 
it our own insufficiency, our liability to err, our 
need of the Holy Spirit's aid to suggest materials, 
to enable us to express ourselves, and, when we 
preach, to touch the hearts of our hearers. Who 
has not felt himself at times like a ship becalmed 
in mid-ocean, unable to make progress, till, having 
been brought to his knees, God has heard his prayer 
and has sent forth His Spirit ? Then, like the same 
ship when a favouring breeze has sprung up and 
filled its sails, he speeds prosperously on his way. 

This, then, is the first point ; We must begin 
with prayer — with prayer directed specially to the 
matter in hand, prayer that God will guide us in 
the choice of our subject, that He will suggest the 
proper handling of it, and the matter suitable to it. 
And as we begin, so we must continue, almost every 
fresh paragraph being made the subject of a special 



Lect. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 137 

supplication : " Teach me, Lord, what it behoves 
me to say here ; " '" Enable me to press home these 
considerations effectually to the consciences of my 
hearers." Need I say how profitable an exercise 
the preparation of a sermon thus prepared must be 
to the writer, while preparing it ; how sure a presage 
of its efficacy and fruitfulness to the hearers, when 
preached ? 

What has been said has referred to prayer specially 
directed to the sermon in hand ; but let us not forget 
the importance of a habit of prayer and recollected- 
ness, as affecting the tone of our sermons generally. 
He who most converses with God will best speak 
for God, and as God would have him speak. 

And let us not think that because a sermon is 
intended for a simple and unlearned congregation, 
there is no so great occasion to seek that special 
aid, of our need of which, in the case of a sermon 
to be preached before an educated audience, we 
might be painfully sensible. The Holy Spirit's 
influence is equally needed to teach us what to 
say and how to say it, that it may prove effectual, 
whoever the hearers may be. 

II. Sitbjects. 

What is to be the subject of our sermon ? Shall 
we take a single text, and illustrate it, and enlarge 
upon it, and draw from it its lessons of instruction, 
whether doctrinal or practical ? Or shall we take a 



138 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

larger portion of Scripture, a narrative or a parable 
— the Gospel for the day, for instance — and explain 
and apply it ? Or shall our sermon be one of a 
series of lectures on some book of Holy Scripture, or 
on the Creed, or the Lord's Prayer, or the Ten Com- 
mandments, or the Sacraments, or the Prayer Book ? 

The advantage of narrative subjects is, that they 
more easily secure the interest of the hearers, and 
are more readily remembered, not only in the 
general, but also as to the points specially selected 
for application. Thus, e.g., if we wished to impress 
upon our audience the danger of presumptuous self- 
confidence in the prospect of temptation, we could 
not do so more effectually than by starting from 
the history of Peter's fall ; if the evil of faint- 
heartedness and distrust of God's aid and protection 
when in the way of duty, the conduct of the 
Israelites, in refusing to go up and take possession 
of the land of Canaan, would afford a useful opening. 
If we wished to point out the sinfulness of shutting 
our eyes to the claims which others, whether near 
or remote, have upon us for succour or courtesy, 
or our liability to deceive ourselves in such matters 
by specious pretexts, no portion of Scripture could 
better serve our purpose than the parable of the 
Good Samaritan. 

One advantage of courses of sermons is, that 
they furnish a subject ready at hand, when other- 



Lect. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 139 

wise we might be at a loss, and might waste our 
time in balancing between one text and another. 
They also prevent that sameness and self-repetition, 
which are almost unavoidable where a preacher 
who, week after week, has to address the same 
congregation, falls back upon his ordinary resources. 
Above all, they suggest topics often very season- 
able, and much needing to be brought forward, 
whether in the way of doctrine or practice, which 
either might not have occurred to the preacher, or 
which he might have felt some difficulty in intro- 
ducing abruptly or as of set purpose, but which, 
coming in the regular course of his teaching, fall 
naturally into their place, and have less the appear- 
ance of being personal. 

Yet a long course, without interruption or variation, 
is not desirable. People become tired of the same- 
ness of the general plan, notwithstanding the variety 
of detail to which it ministers. It is well to inter- 
mingle every now and then, as occasion may require 
or suggest, sermons on single texts, or on other 
passages of Scripture — those especially which occur 
in the services of the day — or on special subjects. 

Courses of sermons on the Creed afford an 
opportunity for systematic doctrinal teaching on 
the great fundamental articles of our faith, one or 
another of which might possibly be neglected or 
overlooked, unless its treatment were in some such 



140 HGMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

way suggested from without. The advantage of a 
course on portions of the Prayer Book, as instructing 
the people how to pray with the understanding, 
while they follow the minister with the eye or the 
voice, is obvious. It may require special tact to 
interest a village congregation in sermons of either 
description. Neither course should be of great 
length. There are some excellent specimens of the 
latter kind in the second volume of the late Augustus 
Hare's " Sermons to a Country Congregation " — 
excellent, not only for the simplicity of the thought 
and style, but also for the interest with which the 
subject is invested — as there are also in Mr. Keble's 
" Sermons for the Christian Year." 

In the case of occasional sermons, where a text 
has once been chosen, it is better, as a rule, to go 
forward with it, than to waste time and energy 
by laying it down, only to take another, which 
may prove equally untractable. I do not forget 
the advice contained in Horace's words — 

" Quae 
Desperat tractata nitescere posse relinquit ; * 

but study, aided by prayer, will often unlock a 
door which at first seemed hopelessly closed ; or, to 
change the metaphor, will open out a fountain of 
abundant waters where at first nothing was to be 
seen but an arid desert. 



Lect. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 141 

Whatever the subject, however, we must remember 
that one object to be constantly kept in view is to 
set forth Christ as the alone Saviour, both from the 
guilt of sin by His atonement, and from the dominion 
of sin by His Spirit; to set Him forth, too, not 
merely as an historical person who has long since 
disappeared from the scene, but whose memory we 
are to cherish and whose example we are to imitate, 
but as One who even now lives, the selfsame that He 
was in the days of His flesh — as sympathizing, as 
loving, as ready to succour, yet as holy, as severe in 
His reprobation of hypocrisy and pretentiousness, as 
when He was conversant among men. 

We must take heed, too, of addressing a Christian 
congregation as though it consisted wholly or prin- 
cipally of heathens. All have in baptism been dedi- 
cated to Christ, have been admitted into the Christian 
covenant, have been invested with its privileges, have 
been brought under its responsibilities. If any are 
living in the neglect of God and His service, they 
are to be warned that they are doing so in spite of 
the most solemn obligations; if any are in good 
earnest seeking to live as Christians, they are to be 
bidden to remember Whose children they are, Whose 
Spirit dwells within them, and exhorted to " stir up " 
the grace which has been given them, and to be 
"strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." 
In nothing is there a greater contrast between the 



H2 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

tone of St. Paul's epistles and that of many modern 
sermons than in the light in which the persons ad- 
dressed are regarded. And it would be no unprofit- 
able exercise to read through one or two of those 
epistles — those to the Corinthians or the Galatians, 
for instance — keeping this one object in view, to 
mark the footing on which the Apostle conceives 
those to whom he is writing to stand, and the manner 
in which he deals with them, whether he has to 
praise or to blame, to warn, or to exhort, or to 
encourage. Let me refer to such passages as i Cor. 
i., vi., x. ; 2 Cor. vi. 14 — vii. 1 ; Gal. iii., iv.; Rom. vi. 

III. Materials. 

We have now sought God's blessing by special 
prayer, and we have chosen our subject. Whence 
shall we obtain the materials for our sermon ? 

These, like the materials of Solomon's Temple, 
should be got ready before we proceed to write. A 
man may indeed sit down with commentaries and 
other works, from which he hopes to gain assistance, 
spread out before him, and, as he proceeds, avail 
himself of them, as he finds them suitable to his 
purpose. But this is to use these appliances at the 
wrong time. They will only clog his freedom of 
thought, and prove hindrances rather than the helps 
which they would be if used at the right time. His 
sermon will be crude and ill-digested, or a mere 
patchwork. All that we want when we begin to 



Lect. VI. J PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 143 

write is pen, ink, and paper, a Bible within reach, 
and a mind well furnished. 

Our materials are of two sorts — those prepared 
specially for the occasion, and those w r hich are being 
accumulated from time to time for general use. 

1. As to those prepared specially for the occasion. 
The text, with its context, should be studied in the 
original Greek, or, if it is front the Old Testament, 
and if we are Hebrew scholars, as we ought to be, in 
the original Hebrew. And this should be followed 
up — not preceded, observe — by reference to one or 
another judicious commentary, or to any other work 
likely to throw light upon it, — a sermon on the same 
text, if you will. The suggestions thus obtained may 
be put down roughly on a loose sheet, as they occur, 
to be worked in as opportunity serves. 

I do not forget, while recommending this study of 
the text — this learned study, it may be — that it is a 
sermon for a rustic audience which we have in view. 
No doubt nothing could well be more out of place 
than a show of learning in such a discourse. But 
whatever the character of the audience, it is due to 
them, it is due to God's Word, that we should spare 
no pains in endeavouring to ascertain the true 
meaning of the passage which we are taking upon 
us to deal with. 

2. Then as to a stock of materials for general use. 
First and foremost is the diligent and devout study 



144 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VL 

of the Bible — some portion daily — in its whole com- 
pass. This will furnish an unfailing store on which 
to draw. I do not mean in the shape of quotations 
scattered here and there with more or less appro- 
priateness, but the spontaneous outflow of a mind 
thoroughly penetrated with the Word of God, which 
has read, and fed upon, and digested, and assimilated 
the Word of God — a mind which has become habi- 
tuated to judge of persons and conduct by the 
standard of Scripture — a mind which, by being 
continually conversant with the mind of God, has, 
in its measure, grown into conformity with it. 

Further, we should be on the alert to add to 
our store materials gathered from whatsoever other 
writings duty, or taste, or inclination, or it may be 
accident, may bring in our way. St. Paul, Jew 
though he was, had made acquaintance with Greek 
authors, and he turned it to account. There is, 
indeed, hardly any description of literature, from 
which a mind in a healthy state may not derive 
materials available for use on some occasion or other. 
What lessons of human nature — often, alas! the 
saddest side of it, but one with which we have too 
good need to be acquainted — are to be learnt from 
a newspaper ! 

But we need not travel so far from home as even 
to a newspaper to gain a knowledge of human nature. 
Our own hearts will afford us ample scope for study, 



Lect. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 145 

and if studied, will afford us a never-failing supply of 
materials for our sermons. When we are describing 
our own case (though we need not, and ordinarily 
ought not, to speak of it as our own), our own 
temptations, our own miscarriages, our own successes 
(if God of His grace has, in any instance, vouchsafed 
us success), we may be certain that we are touching 
chords which will vibrate through many a heart in 
our congregation, and our hearers will marvel, per- 
haps, at our acquaintance with their circumstances, 
or in some instances may suspect us, as they would 
word it, of "preaching at them/' when it has been 
our own likeness which we have been portraying. 

After all, however, there is no more fruitful or 
more important source from which to derive matter 
for our sermons, than that which is supplied by inter- 
course with our people. This will furnish us with a 
knowledge of particulars most necessary for our 
guidance, and scarcely less so for enabling us to 
secure the attention and engage the interest of our 
hearers. It is the dealing with general statements, 
general exhortations, instead of descending to particu- 
lars, that makes many sermons, otherwise excellent, 
miss their mark. From intercourse with our people 
we shall learn the special trials and temptations 
which we are to keep in view, the particular sins 
which prevail, the particular prejudices, misappre- 
hensions, errors, forms of self-deceit, which need to 

10 



1 46 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

be exposed. We shall become accustomed to their 
way of viewing things, to their modes of thought, to 
their proverbial sayings, their similes, their metaphors, 
their illustrations, in all of which the poor abound. 
In a word, we shall become used to their language, 
and they to ours ; and when we come to write, we 
shall naturally and unstudiedly express ourselves so 
as to be understood by them — not only, I mean, as 
to the words we use, but, what is of at least as 
much importance, as to the sentiments and modes 
of thought which those words express. 

IV. The Handling of the Subject. 

We have now got our materials in readiness. It 
remains to shape them and turn them to account. 

The first thing is to have clearly before us what 
it is that we are going to write about — a suggestion 
not so needless as might be thought, especially con- 
sidering that we have already decided upon our text, 
and have studied it. There are cases, not, I suspect, 
unusual, where people set out without any distinct 
idea of any definite subject, and go on, adding sen- 
tence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph, till 
they have filled the requisite number of pages, so 
bringing the matter at last to a decorous close. And 
when this is reached, beyond the text, it would be a 
hard matter either for the preacher or his hearers to 
say precisely what the sermon has been about. It is 
well to ask ourselves, then, "What is our subject?" 



Lect. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS, 147 

and then to set the answer down categorically on 
paper, and let it lie conspicuously before us while we 
are writing, as his compass does before the helms- 
man, that it may keep us to our point, and preserve 
us from that vague, rambling way of proceeding of 
which I spoke. The same rule may usefully be 
applied to the several divisions and subdivisions of 
the sermon. " What is the point before me now ? " 
" What is the lesson I am proposing to teach ? " 
"What class of persons am I to keep in view here ? " 
etc., etc. The answer in each case to be written 
down as before, and placed in front of us. 

Such questions are useful also for opening out a 
subject, and suggesting modes of handling it. For 
instance : — 

1. What relation does the text bear to the context 
— both that which precedes and that which follows ? 

2. Does it require explanation ? Has it any 
special difficulty ? Is it liable to be misunderstood 
or abused ? 

3. What is the subject of it ? What its subordinate 
parts ? 

4. What is its practical bearing, or that of its 
subordinate parts, upon various classes of persons — 
for instance, upon rich, poor, the young, the old, 
ungodly persons, careless persons, persons in afflic- 
tion, sincere and earnest persons, and such as are 
advancing in the Christian life ? etc., etc. 



148 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

5. What arguments are proper to prove this point ? 
what considerations to persuade this course ? 

These may serve as specimens, and the mention of 
them will suggest others. 

It is not well to have many heads or divisions 
in a sermon. Two or three, however, are desirable. 
They serve as rests, and enable the hearer to brace 
himself up afresh for renewed attention, if he has 
begun to flag. If the sermon were for an educated 
audience, it would not, as a rule, be desirable to state 
these divisions formally at the outset. They ought 
to indicate themselves sufficiently of their own accord, 
as they occur. Where the congregation is uneducated, 
it is a help to them to know beforehand what they 
are to look for. 

If the text be a narrative or a parable, and con- 
sequentty may have two or three or more points to 
which attention is to be directed, it is still important to 
seize the central point — in a parable, for instance, the 
one scope towards which the parable is directed — and 
treat the others as subordinate to it, making each 
the head of a separate division. Thus, in the parable 
of the Labourers in the Vineyard, the scope of 
the parable, as indicated by Peter's question which 
suggested it, "What shall we have therefore ?" is to 
exclude a self-sufficient spirit, which makes much of 
its own merits, and is indignant that others should 
be put on a level with it — such as was manifested 



Lect. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 149 

by the Pharisees in reference to the publicans and 
sinners, and often by the Jewish converts in reference 
to their Gentile brethren. But any one of the sub- 
ordinate parts of the narrative or parable might itself 
be made the central subject of a sermon, and then 
the narrative or parable would serve to introduce it. 
Thus, in the parable referred to, the reply of the 
labourers to the question, M Why stand ye here all 
the day idle ? " " Because no man hath hired us," 
might serve as a suitable and pregnant text for a 
missionary sermon; or the circumstance that some 
of the labourers were hired at the eleventh hour 
might be made available for pointing out the danger 
of trusting to a death-bed repentance, which is very 
commonly encouraged by an ignorant misapplication 
of it. 

If the sermon be simply expository, it is still well, 
if possible, to concentrate the several subjects which 
come before us around one principal subject. But if 
this cannot be done — and we must not fetter our- 
selves by too strict a rule — then we must contrive to 
have two or three points standing out with distinct 
prominence, each of them, the last especially, being 
made the occasion of some practical lesson. 

My object in laying so much stress on unity of 
treatment is to make sure that our hearers shall have 
something which they can grasp and carry away with 
them, which is more than can always be said. It will 



ISO H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

often contribute to this to state at the outset what 
the sermon is to be about, though not necessarily in a 
formal way — in fact, to let the first paragraph be an 
epitome of the whole. This will naturally be followed 
by explanation and unfolding of the text, or, if a 
narrative or a parable, by a recapitulation of the 
details, pointing out their connection with and sub- 
ordination to the principal subject. 

While speaking of the introduction of the sermon, 
let me mention the importance of throwing as much 
interest into it as possible. It is of great consequence 
to secure the attention of the hearers at the outset. 
But we must not only secure their attention at the 
outset, we must sustain it to the end. We must 
have attention ; we must be listened to with interest. 
Otherwise, however plain and intelligible our sermon, 
however full of valuable matter, and however useful 
its lessons, our labour will be lost. 

The following hints may be of service : Do not let 
us rest satisfied with general statements, general 
directions, general cautions, etc. These must be 
followed out into particulars. We must give in- 
stances of what we mean — instances drawn from 
Scripture, or furnished by other books, or suggested 
by our own experience, especially by intercourse with 
our parishioners — only taking care to avoid every 
approach to personality. We must ask questions — 
sometimes supplying the answers, at other times 



Lect. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 151 

leaving it to our hearers to give them. We may 
refer, where occasion serves, to local history of 
ancient date connected with the church, or parish, 
or neighbourhood — for instance, the figure of a 
knight in armour on an ancient monument might 
serve to illustrate a sermon on the Christian armour 
(Eph. vi.), or we may avail ourselves of matters of 
recent occurrence or of public notoriety. We may 
lay hold of proverbs in frequent use, and point out 
how, as is often the case, they are misapplied ; or of 
common phrases, which are made to serve the 
purpose of excusing what is evil or stigmatizing 
what is good — as, for example, when sins, which it 
ought to be a shame even to speak of, are called 
"misfortunes," or when religious earnestness is 
sneered at as " Methodism." 

Much, too, may be done by the style, both of the 
composition and of the delivery, Of these I shall 
speak of set purpose directly. All I would say 
meanwhile is, that they should be suited to the 
subject-matter presently in hand — lively, or earnest, 
or deeply serious, as the case may be. Occasionally 
attention may be roused or kept awake by the 
employment of paradox, followed by explanation of 
the meaning intended : as for instance, " It may seem 
a strange thing to say, but the Bible says it, e Be not 
righteous over-much/ What can this mean ? Can 
we be too righteous ? " There are occasions, too 



152 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

when in the more earnest and fervent parts it may 
not be improper to make momentary appeals to 
God, in the shape of ejaculatory prayers, instances 
of which we find in St. Paul's epistles. But such 
appeals should be the genuine outpouring of our 
hearts. What would be genuine in one man would 
be unnatural and out of character in another. 
Anything like an affectation of fervency — indeed, 
affectation of any kind — is intolerable. The pulpit 
is not a stage, nor the preacher an actor. 

The same holds of that quality of style which is 
called " unction," which is most effective both in 
securing and riveting the attention, and, under God, 
in laying hold of the affections, and reaching the 
hearts and consciences of the hearers. One rule, and 
but one, can be prescribed for the attainment of it. 
It must be the genuine expression of a heart pene- 
trated with a lively sense of the Divine majesty, 
constrained by the love of Christ, animated by the 
love of souls, the fruit of habitual communion with 
God in secret, and of prayer and self-application 
accompanying the sermon while it is being both 
prepared and preached. 

V. Language and Style. 

As to language, here also the first rule is to be 
natural, to endeavour to speak as we should express 
ourselves if we were speaking to one or another of 
those who compose our audience on the same subjects 



Lect.VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 153 

in private — or rather, were preaching to the same 
audience without book. This is not always an easy 
matter. The moment we take pen in hand, we are 
apt to fall into an artificial style, with measured 
cadences, and sentences framed less simply than 
when we speak — a style proper for an essay or a 
dissertation, but too stiff and elaborate for a sermon. 
I am not recommending negligence or slovenliness 
(God forbid !), nor again familiarity, which would be 
unsuitable to our subject, as well as to the place, the 
occasion, and our own character and office. What is 
wanted is, as I have said, a style as nearly as possible 
approaching to that which we should use, both as to 
our words and as to the structure of our sentences, if 
our sermon were unwritten, and we were preaching 
without book. I know of no better way of attaining 
it than by endeavouring, while we write, to place our 
congregation before us, in imagination, and to test 
what we have written, from time to time, by what 
we have reason to believe the calibre of their under- 
standings. I am not sure that the placing of the 
photographs of two or three representative persons 
among them before us might not be of service to 
keep us from overshooting our mark, whether in 
language or in thought. 

I believe the direction above given carries with it 
in principle all that is necessary on the subject of 
language. This will guide us as to the kind of words 



154 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

to be employed. These should, of course, be such as 
are in common use among our people. Yet we are 
not bound to restrict ourselves over-anxiously to 
these. We do not do so in conversing with them, 
and yet are understood. A manifestly condescending 
adoption of their speech is to be avoided. More 
stress than is necessary is often laid on the use of 
words of Anglo-Saxon origin. The vocabulary of the 
poor is by no means restricted to these. In some 
instances, curiously enough, of two synonyms, they 
choose the one of Norman or Latin origin. What is 
of more consequence is to avoid long and involved 
sentences. These may be proper enough in what is 
intended for the eye — where, if the meaning be not 
taken in at once, the sentence may be read again — 
but are out of place in what is intended for the ear, 
especially the uneducated ear. 

Let me say what remains to be said on this head 
as briefly as possible. 

I have already spoken of the importance of being 
natural. It is only putting the same direction into 
the form of a caution to say, Avoid affectation. Let 
me add, Avoid egotism. That little pronoun of one 
letter, of the first person singular, ought to be used 
sparingly and with judgment. The corresponding 
plurals, "we" and "us," are generally, though not 
invariably, to be chosen in preference to the plural 
of the second person, at least where the preacher has 



Lect. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 155 

not the authority of years superadded to that of 
office. It is more in keeping, most of us must feei, 
with the consciousness we have of our own infirmity, to 
associate ourselves with our hearers, as sympathizing 
with them in their trials and temptations ; and yet 
we must speak with authority also, as remembering 
in Whose Name we speak. But authority is not 
weakened, but strengthened rather, when it is tem- 
pered with sympathy. 

Another caution closely allied to the preceding is 
to avoid a harsh, scolding style. Men are more 
easily led than driven. There are cases, indeed, and 
those unhappily not of unfrequent occurrence, where 
we have to speak of conduct which must be denounced 
with unsparing severity. But severity should not 
be the general tone of our sermons, and the circum- 
stance of its not being the general tone will give it 
the more weight, and make it the more effectual, 
when, on a just occasion, it does occur. 

Let me sum up all in three or four sentences. 
, Let us write in the spirit of prayer. Let our 
\ sermon be real ; let it be full of charity ; let it be 
j serious, grave, earnest, confident of attention, authori- 
( tative, and yet tender and sympathising, and respect- 
ful — for respect is due to the humblest audience. 
Above all, let Christ be the sun and centre of it, 
attracting all men's eyes and hearts, and shedding 
His blessed light throughout. "We preach Christ 



156 HOMILETICALLECTURES. [Lect. VI. 

crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto 
the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are 
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of 
God, and the wisdom of God." 

VI. Delivery. 

My subject is the preparation of a sermon, and my 
work in strictness is completed, when what I have to 
say of the preparation has been said. But I must 
add one word on the delivery. 

We are not to read a sermon as if we were reading 
an essay or a dissertation. We have a number of 
persons before us, and we are addressing ourselves 
to them. We must speak to them as we should do 
if our sermon were merely spoken, and not written, 
varying our tone and manner, of course, according 
to our matter, whether as stating certain truths, or 
reasoning and conducting an argument, or pressing 
home some weighty duty, or remonstrating or plead- 
ing with sinners. In one word, here also we must 
be real, natural, unaffected. This simple principle, 
as in the case of style, comprises everything of 
importance. We must avoid imitating the manner of* 
any preacher of whom we may happen to have, and 
possibly justly, a high opinion, but whose manner, 
though natural and graceful in him, might be the 
reverse in us. Our own delivery will best suit our 
own sentences. Probably enough, our natural 
manner admits of improvement. It may have grave 



LXCV. VI.] PREPARING VILLAGE SERMONS. 157 

defects. Let us by all means do all we can to 
discover the defects, and use all the helps we can to 
correct and amend them. But withal, I say once 
more, Let us be real, let us be natural, let us be 
consistent and of a piece. Let us forget ourselves, 
let us enter heartily into our work, let us remember 
Whose work it is, in Whose Name, and in Whose 
hearing we speak ; Whose message we have to 
deliver, what issues depend upon it, to Whom we 
must give account, — and speak as realizing these. 



t IJwacIwr'B (Bids. 



BY THE REVEREND EDWARD GARBETT, M.A., HONORARY CANON 
OF WINCHESTER, RECTOR OF BARCOMBE, SUSSEX. 



VII. 

THE PREACHER'S GIFTS. 

IT pleases God, not less by the variety of gifts 
bestowed upon His people, than by the diversity 
of office, to complete the unity of His Church. The 
two things are not identical. It is not only that 
various kinds of gifts are needed for the diverse offices 
through which Christ accomplishes the work of the 
Church ; but it is that there is an infinite variety of 
gifts which men bring to one and the same office. 
Of the gifts of the preacher this is peculiarly true. 
The differences which distinguish the discharge of 
this great function of the Christian ministry are 
matters of common observation and experience; the 
familiar recognition of certain men as the great 
preachers of their time bears witness to it. Nor is 
the difference which distinguishes one preacher from 
another, as it appears to me, only a difference of 
degree, but it is a difference of kind. It is true that 
there may be a difference of degree. A higher ten- 
sion of faculty, a more perfect cultivation, a richer 
wealth of imagination, an ampler store of learning, 

II 



1 62 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

and a more exquisite sympathy, may produce a 
pre-eminent exercise in one man of the selfsame 
gifts, as are possessed by other men in a lower 
degree and with a diminished force. If this were all, 
the weakest passages of one man's eloquence would 
be indistinguishable from the higher flights of another. 
But there is likewise a difference of kind. Certain 
characteristic qualities give a speciality both of 
matter and of language so precise and specific as 
to enable a critical mind to recognise, without much 
difficulty, the preacher from whom they have pro- 
ceeded. He will identify a great preacher, as readily 
as an artist recognises the hand of a great painter. 

The fact may be recognised in the grqat preachers 
of all ages. It may be seen in inspired Apostles, 
so far as their writings enable us to judge of their 
spoken words. The vigorous argumentation of St. 
Paul, sometimes abrupt and unconnected, from the 
very rapidity and vehemence with which he thought, 
is characteristically different from the fervid earnest- 
ness of St. Peter, or from that mixture of practical 
wisdom with a highly imaginative style, actually 
crowded with figures, which we find in St. James, or 
from the loving tenderness and deep spiritual insight 
of St. John. In the great preachers of antiquity the 
same difference is perceptible. The manly vigour of 
Tertullian, replete with feeling and imagination, is 
distinct from the fluent clearness of Cyprian, from 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHERS GIFTS. 163 

the Ciceronian periods of Lactantius, from the acute 
subtilty and imperious logic of Athanasius, from the 
hard forensic oratory of Ambrose, from the elaborate 
and florid eloquence of Basil and the Gregories, from 
the nervousness of Hilary, from the ardour and wit 
of Jerome, from the luxuriant splendour of Chryso- 
stom, and from the passion, energy, and dialectical 
subtilty of Augustine. , The same characteristic 
differences have reappeared in the preachers of later 
times. The intense energy of Luther stands in sharp 
contrast with the grace and elegance of Melancthon, 
and with the trenchant vivacity of Calvin. The 
characteristics of Basil have been recognised in 
Bossuet, and the golden utterances of Chrysostom 
in Massillon. To come to our own divines, the 
majestic eloquence of Hooker is quite distinct from 
the intricate style, yet dignity and pathos, of Donne, 
the spirit and striking imagery of Reynolds, the 
amplitude and method of Barrow, the nervousness 
and wit of South, and the mingled humour, fancy, 
argumentative force and versatile eloquence of Jeremy 
Taylor. For evident reasons I forbear to extend 
these brief criticisms into our own times ; but the 
remembrance of some of the addresses delivered in 
connection with the Church Homiletical Society may 
remind us that rhetorical powers second to none in 
other times are yet to be found among the highest 
dignitaries of our own Church. 



164 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII 

Now, this difference alike in the matter and the 
manner of the preacher depends on a corresponding 
difference in his mental habitude, again not a diffe- 
rence of degree only, but a difference of kind. This 
variety of mental habitude in its turn arises from a 
variety of gifts — I mean powers which are part of our 
mental and moral constitution. We can give no 
further account of them than that they are endow- 
ments bestowed by God. How far they may be due 
in any degree to the associations of infancy and the 
unconscious influences which begin to act, even from 
the cradle, is a nice question which I must not stop 
to discuss. It is certain that the variety may be 
traced back to actual childhood. Let a group of 
children be reared in the same nursery, and brought 
up under the same nurse ; let them be submitted to 
the same discipline, and trained to the same studies, 
under the same teachers, yet they will be found to 
differ as they grow up. These differences will gradu- 
ally develop themselves in their various directions, 
and will so harden into habits as to be, so far as we 
see, an inseparable part of a man's individuality. 

This belief in the constitutional differences of man 
from man is not affected by the fact that, up to a 
certain point, gifts not naturally possessed may yet 
be attained by practice. For instance, the power of 
extempore speech may be acquired. A man's ner- 
vous constitution may render him unable to think 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHERS GIFTS, 165 

with the necessary rapidity and accuracy in the 
presence of others, and he may be devoid of that 
fluent command of words which makes speaking 
either easy to himself or pleasant to his hearers. 
Yet, by persevering effort and careful cultivation, he 
may acquire both these powers, not only adequately 
for all practical purposes, but even to very conside- 
rable perfection. The same thing is true of other 
gifts of the preacher. But yet the acquired power 
will always differ widely from the natural gift. The 
process of acquisition will be exceedingly laborious, 
and the power, when attained, will never pass beyond 
a certain limit, or reach the perfection in which it is 
exercised, without an effort, by other men. In the 
case just specified, for instance, the exercise of a 
vigorous common sense may make a man a fair, or 
even a successful, extempore preacher, and yet there 
is a certain point and pith, a completeness in the 
structure of sentences, and a fluent propriety and 
piquancy in the choice of words, which no cultivation 
will enable a man to attain when the natural gift 
has been withheld. 

Nor is the belief in these constitutional differences 
affected by the fact that all gifts, however constitu- 
tional, admit of cultivation — nay, even require it. 
There are many familiar cases, where latent powers 
may be possessed unconsciously, till some strong 
occasion calls them into exercise. But cultivation, 



1 66 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

though it will improve the natural gift in all men, 
will not equalize it in any men. Look at a group of 
boys, and observe how they differ in stature and in 
strength. The same process of growth takes place 
in them all, and they develop into men. But that 
growth has not equalized their bodily conditions : 
they differ from each other as men as widely as they 
differed from each other as boys. So it is with 
mental faculties. They grow with exercise ; but 
when they have reached the highest perfection to 
which cultivation can bring them, they will still differ 
in degree in different men, as much as the body 
differs in features, stature, proportion, and strength. 
The clear recognition of this diversity of constitu- 
tional gifts leads us on to a further and a higher 
sphere of thought altogether. For whence does it 
arise, but from the will of God ? Not alone is the 
condition of our marvellous nature altogether to be 
referred to His wisdom, but each man's speciality is to 
be referred to Him also. The birth of every human 
being is really an act of creation ; and as the potter 
moulds the clay as he will, so the special constitution 
of different men is a part of God's providence, and 
of that sovereign electing will in which all things 
have their origin. We are what we are by natural 
constitution, because God has made us so. From 
this it further follows that the special constitution 
with which He has endowed each one of us is a 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHERS GIFTS. 167 

matter of special forethought and deliberate inten- 
tion. God does not bestow His gifts broadcast, as a 
sower may sow his seed, leaving it to fall casually 
where and how it will ; there can be nothing acci- 
dental to the omniscience of God, nothing uncon- 
scious to His wisdom. The same mind which has 
arranged the multitudinous objects which make up 
the completeness of the natural cosmos, is equally 
precise in the world of mind and of morals. Each 
preacher's gifts vary according to the deliberate 
counsel and purpose of God. 

The reason why God calls men to one and the 
same function of preaching, indefinitely diverse from 
each other in character and gifts, lies up to a certain 
point readily within our knowledge. The diversity 
is not confined to preachers, but extends through 
all human society. It is to be found among men of 
every profession, every occupation, every class. It is 
therefore to be found in every congregation. We 
cannot follow it out into details and individuals ; but 
in every group of men there must be some prevailing 
disposition and character known to the eye of God. 
Speaking generally, it is clearly necessary that there 
should be a sympathy between a preacher and those 
to whom he preaches, not alone in object, but in 
feeling and disposition ; a sympathy, not an identity, 
corresponding to the sympathy which adapts husband 
and wife to each other, and which constitutes the 



168 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VI I. 

closer tie because it is a sympathy, but not an 
identity. It is indisputable that some persons find a 
special delight and a peculiar profit in the ministry 
of certain preachers. Why but because of the simi- 
larity of mental habitude and gift ? A stereotyped 
monotony of gifts in preachers would evidently put 
the pulpit out of sympathy with the infinite varieties 
of human thought and feeling. God bestows a 
variety of gifts upon preachers, simply because He 
has bestowed a variety of gifts upon hearers. 

We trace this in three particulars. In the first 
place, as I have already said, the natural gift, or 
balance of gifts, must be referred to the will of God. 
In the second place, the inward call which alone con- 
stitutes a man's fitness for Holy Orders, comes also 
from the will of God, working by His Spirit. This 
call indisputably is given to some, not to all ; and 
surely to these particular persons, not accidentally, 
but of God's deliberate intention. He chooses those 
whom He will call, and He calls knowingly and inten- 
tionally men of the widest possible variety of endow- 
ments : men of very moderate mental powers, and 
men of the highest genius and the noblest capacities ; 
men of the calmest temperaments, and men of the 
most burning zeal ; men of logical faculties, and men 
of the richest fancy and the most gorgeous imagi- 
nation ; men of the most eager energy and a labori- 
ousness that never tires, and men of the acutest 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHERS GIFTS. 169 

sensibility and the most delicate sympathies. Poets, 
philosophers, historians, critics, orators, administrators, 
divines, all follow the bent of their genius, and all 
are called of God. It seems plain as the sunshine 
that He calls all because He has need of all, and is 
pleased to use them all as the earthly instruments of 
His mighty Spirit in the conversion of the world, and 
in the edification of the Church. 

But I must add a third thing. God not only 
endows the men, not only calls them, so endowed, 
but He likewise places them in their respective 
spheres of work. This follows from the doctrine of 
a particular Providence. It appears to me as un- 
reasonable to admit a general providence and to deny 
a particular one, as it would be to admit that human 
skill made a watch, and yet to deny that it made all 
the parts of the watch. Nor is it irrelevant to re- 
member that this providence is the providence of the 
great Head of the Church Himself, and is exercised 
by the nail-scarred hands of the Crucified. The 
constant language of Scripture affirms that every- 
thing is divinely ordered. God killeth and maketh 
alive. He putteth down and setteth up. He casts 
our lines in fair places, and orders the bounds of our 
habitation. He counts the very hairs on the heads 
of His people, and makes all things to work together 
for good to them that love Him. If there be any one 
who more than others may expect the details of his 



i;o HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

life to be ordered by God, and his place and work 
fixed by His will, it is the minister of the Gospel, 
"the man of God," as Scripture calls him, "the 
fellow-worker with Christ Jesus," as the Apostle 
designates him, "the ambassador of Christ," the 
pastor who is set to " watch for souls." Let us 
realize the truth, und fix our faith upon it, till from 
a set of phrases it goes into an actual living reality ; 
and does it not follow that our place and ministry 
are ordered for us by our Lord ? and if so, that they 
are ordered wisely and well, and with an exact adap- 
tation of our special gifts to the special work we are 
called to do ? It does not seem to me that the com- 
plicated arrangements of our Church patronage, or 
even the intervention of private purchase, ought to 
hide from our eyes the full recognition of His will, 
for whose providence nothing is too minute, for whose 
wisdom nothing is too complex, and for whose power 
nothing is too difficult. 

I am not insensible to the embarrassments which 
beset this truth. It does not seem to us that the 
right man always gets into the right place, or that 
God's ministers always fill the posts for which they 
are best adapted. The enormous waste of strength 
and misapplication of energy in the Church of 
England is a matter of common remark. It cannot 
be denied that the distribution of patronage is far 
indeed from reaching an ideal perfection. It seems 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHER'S GIFTS. 171 

sometimes as if human hands had turned the proper 
order of things upside down. I cannot deny that 
human selfishness, covetousness, interest, and ambi- 
tion are mysteriously permitted sadly and largely to 
interfere with the providential guidance of the Great 
Head. It is part of the deep mystery of evil, that 
profound question from the very confines of which 
the highest human intellect falls back baffled. We 
can but refer it to His will, whose judgments are a 
great deep, unfathomable to human thought. " Who 
hath known the mind of the Lord ? or who hath been 
His counsellor ? " 

Yet it must be admitted that from some points 
of view the actual system which determines men's 
spheres in the Church, deeply marked as it is with 
traces of human ignorance, yet works on the whole 
wonderfully well. It may lead us to suspect that 
things are not really so bad as we think them to 
be. Men's work is divinely ordered, and the right- 
men are placed in the right sphere, to a far greater 
degree than we are apt to recognise. I hastily 
suggest some considerations which may tend a good 
deal to move away the clouds which darken the 
eye of faith and conceal the manifest traces of the 
footsteps of God. 

In the first place, we must charge much of what 
is real in this apparent disorder on our lack of simple 
self-surrender to the will of our Master. In heart 



172 H0MILET1CAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII.' 

and conscience we do really believe in the over- 
ruling guidance of His wisdom, and yet practically, 
when we come to deal with the actual details of 
our life, we often feel and think and determine as 
if we disbelieved it. No doubt the recognition of 
any express guidance is sometimes difficult and 
perplexing ; but does not the perplexity often arise 
from a lack of the full courage of faith ? God's 
providence must be interpreted by the key supplied 
by His Word. We honestly endeavour to read it 
thus, and with earnest prayer seek to know what is 
the will of God concerning us. Well, then, should 
we not be content to trust Him ? Should we not 
rest in the assurance that He has guided us aright, 
and avoid that fidgety anxiety of conscience with 
which we often worry ourselves out of our peace ? 
We may have done quite right, when we fancy that 
we have done quite wrong. It appears to me that 
our confidence in a providential guidance may be 
the more implicit, in proportion as the course we 
have adopted differs from our own preconceived 
w r ishes and long-formed plans. When we allow our 
minds to dwell long on any favourite wishes of our 
own, we are very apt to form our own providence, 
and to mistake the ignis fatuus of a human fancy 
for the clear star of heaven. The wise rule of Cecil 
was that no man should move to a new sphere of 
work till he found his path closed up behind, as well 



LEcr. VII.] THE PREACHERS GIFTS. 173 

as opened before. If we prayerfully seek to be 
guided by God, why should we doubt that we are 
actually guided by God ? 

But further, the apparent unfitness of our gifts for 
the special post in which we are set to preach the 
word of life, may arise from a lack of earnestness 
and honesty in the use of these gifts. Many of us 
must charge ourselves with not doing our best. The 
weekly sermons are rather considered as a task to 
be done, than as an honour to be enjoyed. They 
become a perfunctory act of duty to be got ovei 
and done somehow ; and hence the true aim and 
mission of the preacher is forgotten. There is a 
coldness and deadness, a want of life and animation, 
a lack of pleasure and happy effort, alike in the 
preparation and in the delivery. The soul is not 
stirred by its work, and what wonder that the latent 
gifts are not called into exercise ? There are few 
preachers who haVe not to lay this to their con- 
science, that we become in the pulpit a kind of cold 
and artificial selves, and not what God meant and 
made us to be. We should feel this the more, 
because the ultimate cause of it is a want of love, 
and of zeal and spiritual life. The fire is not kindled 
with the live coals of the Spirit, or kept burning by 
prayer and meditation. We blame God for giving 
us a work for which we are unfitted, and yet the 
unfitness may be solely in our own selves — -not in 



174 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

the absence of gifts, but in the non-use of them. 
We allow the sword to grow rusty in its scabbard, 
and what wonder if the edge be blunt, and the arm 
that should wield it stiff and awkward ? 

But further, we mistake the results of our own 
work, and think our ministry less effective than it 
probably is. Partly it arises from the wisdom of 
God, who does not permit us to see all the fruit of 
our labours; for it may be that we are too weak 
to bear the consciousness of success, and might lose 
our power in the complacent contemplation of it. 
Partly it is because our ignorance is hasty and 
impatient, and measures results rather by the three- 
score years and ten of him who plants and waters 
than by the eternity of Him who gives the increase. 
Partly it is because we do not expect enough, but, 
resting in the punctual discharge of a fixed duty, 
neither ask a blessing nor expect an answer. 

And, last of all, our own ignorance may grossly 
mistake things, and may imagine an unfitness in the 
preacher's gifts in the very instances where the deep 
wisdom of our God has most exactly adapted them 
to their work. The conditions with which God deals 
in the world of spirit, as well as in the world of 
matter, are much too complex and intricate, and 
reach too far and too wide, for us to be able to 
measure them. We may possibly be lamenting the 
inadequacy of a preacher's gifts, when they are in 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHERS GIFTS. 175 

fact the very gifts best adapted to the state of 
the spiritual life of those to whom he preaches. 
For instance, I can readily conceive that, when 
some preacher of extraordinary gifts has occupied a 
pulpit, there may be produced by the very splendour 
of his eloquence a tendency to hero worship, or a 
peril of mistaking the cheap luxury of religious 
emotion for the real power and force of the Spirit 
of God, or a disposition to rely too much on the 
outward ordinance, and too little on the inward 
power, which might, under the continuance of such 
a ministry, be dangerous to the growth of the divine 
life. Or, I can understand that a partial and incom- 
plete mode of viewing the truth of God may arise 
from the spiritual and intellectual habitudes of one 
preacher, which it may need the influence of different 
habitudes in another preacher to counterbalance and 
to correct. We may readily conceive a score of such 
instances, imaginary so far as the actual knowledge 
of individual cases is concerned, but not imaginary, 
rather most true and real, in the facts of the spiritual 
world. Let us not judge hastily, or measure with 
our ignorance the wisdom of the Most High. When 
He removes a great preacher, or silences with sick- 
ness the eloquent tongue on whose accents thousands 
hung entranced, or removes him from one sphere to 
another, and substitutes in his place a preacher of 
very different gifts, there may be good reasons for 



176 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

it, deep as His wisdom, faultless as His omniscience, 
and gracious as His tender love for souls. 

Thus, therefore, I fall back again on the great 
truth, to which I desire to give the utmost emphasis, 
that the gifts and the sphere of every preacher of 
the Word are wisely and exactly allotted by the 
great Head of the Church. He is a God of order, 
and in His counsels every servant of His has his 
place and work. He mistakes no facts, overlooks 
no conditions, miscalculates no results. To the 
human eye things may appear confused and dis- 
ordered ; but so it is apparently in nature. What 
a countless multitude of things go to make up the 
whole of the material world ! and yet we know that 
each individual object is ordered by so exact an 
economy, that not a solitary drop of water is ever 
wasted, or a withered leaf stripped off by the autumn 
wind^vhich does not become the nutriment of some 
new form of life. Shall we think that God is less 
exact in grace than nature ? Why, in every human 
organization, from the humblest workshop up to the 
complex organism of a human government, how nice 
a division of labour, how anxious an adaptation of 
each special gift to its own special work, extend 
throughout the whole! Shall God be less wise in 
the infinite and spiritual, than man in the finite and 
material ? Shall the family of God be less precisely 
administered than the family of man ? Shall the 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHER'S GIFTS. 177 

government of the world unseen be less perfectly 
organised than the government of the seen ? He 
who is most perfect of all in Himself must be most 
perfect of all 111 His actings. Object and intention 
pervade them all. Sight is baffled to trace Him as 
yet, whose ways are in the sea and His footsteps in 
the deep waters. But faith accepts, even now, as a 
most certain fact, the minuteness and perfection of 
that government which will be revealed to knowledge 
hereafter. It is as if God Himself came out of the 
darkness, and made Himself visible. Will it not be 
one of the joys of the better world to see the veil 
entirely removed, and to find in the workings of 
His wisdom, when we see them with the pure vision 
of the just made perfect, themes of praise and 
admiration for all eternity ? 

Lessons arise from this truth on every side, like 
beams of light from a central sun. Suffer me to 
point to the practical conclusions which arise from it. 

I. In the first place, the preacher must endeavoui 
to make the best of the gifts with which he is endowed. 
They are a great responsibility, and he will have to 
give account of them. He must not let them rust 
with disuse, or be lost from actual want of exercise. 
He must cultivate them to the utmost. I lay stress 
upon this, because I am conscious of a temptation to 
neglect the lessons of the wise and the plain results 
of experience, on the plea that we have gifts of only 

12 



178 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

one kind, and can only work in accordance with our 
own method. We are thus in danger of substituting 
our own inclination for the will of God. In one sense, 
it is quite true that a man must work according to 
his gifts ; but if the plea be used as an excuse for 
not earnestly endeavouring to preach in the best and 
wisest way we can, it becomes quite untrue. All the 
gifts with which a preacher can possibly be endowed 
are amenable to the general principles by which the 
ministry should be directed. Let a man be gifted 
how he may, it does not do away with the duty of a 
conscious and prayerful effort to cultivate his preach- 
ing powers to the utmost. It does not supersede the 
responsibility of preaching a full gospel, and making 
known the whole revealed counsel of God ; or the 
necessity of maintaining the proportion of faith, and 
presenting the plan of salvation in that relation 
and correspondence of doctrine with doctrine in 
which it is revealed to us in the Word. It does 
not render it needless to strive after simplicity of 
language and clearness of expression, so that into 
whatever direction your mental habitude may lead 
you, your style may neither be deformed by affecta- 
tion, nor so embarrassed with technical' terms or 
long compounds as to be not " understanded of the 
people." It does not interfere with the cultivation of 
earnestness and simplicity of manner and voice, so 
that the preacher's soul may come out in his words, 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHER'S GIFTS. 179 

and set other hearts on fire with his own enthusiasm. 
The quietest manner, when it is natural to a man, 
may be as earnest, and express as intense an emotion 
as the most excitable. Nor, lastly, does it touch 
the question of extempore or written discourses. I 
venture with great humility to express my own doubt, 
whether men not naturally gifted with utterance may 
not do more good, and become more moving and 
effective preachers, with the written sermon than 
without it ; and I am quite sure that coldness and 
lifelessness of delivery are by no means the necessary 
conditions of a sermon preached from manuscript. 
At all events, if a man preaches extempore only to 
save himself trouble, and because he has not time to 
write, he is making a most grievous mistake. No 
speciality of gift can excuse the lack of prayerful 
and laborious cultivation, or justify indifference to 
the rules which great men of various ages have laid 
down for the guidance of the Christian preacher. 
We must seek to work up to the potentiality we feel 
to be in us. A preacher who is not doing his best, 
nor seeking ever to improve this best, is not doing 
his duty. 

2. We should learn to be content with our special 
gifts, whatever may be either the degree, or the kind 
of endowments, which it has pleased the Master to 
bestow upon us. I do not refer so much to any 
feeling of envy at the higher or more brilliant powers 



i8o HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

possessed by other men, or to any faithlessness in the 
use of our own powers because they are small in 
degree, and fitted rather for the quieter work of the 
Church than for its more illustrious opportunities. 
Increase of power is increase of responsibility. I am 
sure that we have all enough to answer for, without 
wishing to increase the burden. Nor is it always the 
most brilliant preacher who saves most souls ; for the 
power that saves is not of man, but of God. I am 
not alluding to this, but I refer rather to the tempta- 
tion of endeavouring to acquire gifts which we do 
not naturally possess. It may rise from the fascina- 
tion exercised over us by some great preacher, our 
consciousness of the power and influence he wields, 
and a natural ambition to be like him ; or it may 
arise involuntarily, and unconsciously to ourselves, 
from being brought under the influence of some 
distinguished orator, till we come, almost without 
being aware of it, to imitate his style and manner. 
The result is that w 7 e copy others. Such an act is 
most disastrous, and almost fatal, if not .quite fatal, 
to successful preaching. For each man's style grows 
naturally out of his special qualities, and what is 
natural to him may be quite unnatural to another. 
There are men who can take apparent liberties in the 
pulpit, and without irreverence can allow r themselves 
a freedom of speech which it would be suicidal in 
another man to imitate. All copying produces what 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHERS GIFTS. 181 

is artificial and affected ; it takes all the freshness and 
reality out of a preacher ; it is fatal to that trans- 
parent earnestness and honesty which, in the strong 
sympathy of one soul with another, is the greatest 
of all instruments of conviction ; it stiffens, hardens, 
chills. It puts the man upon stilts in the performance 
of a display, instead of placing the preacher foot to 
foot and heart to heart with his fellows, — one dying 
man pleading with dying men for very life in the 
name of the Lord. If there is one maxim which I 
venture more than any other to commend to each of 
my brethren, it is, that he should be himself — simply, 
honestly, naturally himself — just such as God made 
him, doing his own work in his own way, with his 
own gifts, and according to his own power, just as 
the Lord has " divided to every man severally as He 

win: 9 

But a practical question arises here, on which I 
must just say a few words. How is a man to recog- 
nize his own gifts, and so know in what direction or 
in what mode he is to work ? It is not easy even for 
hearers, unless they are endowed with a strong critical 
faculty, to discriminate very exactly the mental gifts 
of the preacher ; and for the preacher to do it himself 
is almost impossible. We may by grace learn the 
secrets of our own conscience, but rightly appraise 
and appreciate our own gifts we cannot. Yet we 
must not devolve it upon others to arrange the direc- 



1 82 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

tion of our ministry, — we must do it ourselves; and 
how are we to attain that knowledge of our gifts, 
which seems to be the starting-point ? I reply that 
we need not the knowledge at all. The less the 
preacher speculates about himself and his own gifts, 
the better. He has higher things to think of than 
the exact character of his own endowments. Let 
him try to do his work for his Master, and his gifts 
will determine their own direction and proportion 
surely enough. The characteristics of the man him- 
self will become the characteristics of his work. Let 
him leave his constitution of intellect and tempera- 
ment to develop itself, after its own law r s, sure that 
his powers will come into exercise spontaneously. Or 
rather let him leave himself to the guidance of God 
the Holy Ghost, that He may mould the earthen 
vessel just as He will, pleased with what pleases 
Him, and not caring much whether his work be done 
in strength or weakness, in the sunshine or in the 
shadow, so that God is glorified and souls are saved. 

3. But, lastly, there arises a caution from all 
this, well worthy of our attention. There should 
be no conscious effort after this gift of the preacher 
or after that ; still less any attempt, conscious or 
unconscious, to copy the gifts of another. And yet 
a conscious effort there must be on the negative 
side, not to allow any of our gifts to run into 
license or to be extravagantly indulged. Some 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHERS GIFTS. 183 

knowledge of the special habitudes of our own 
minds we can scarcely help having. At all events, 
for the needful lesson of self-restraint, it is enough 
for us to know what kind of work we do most 
easily, most pleasantly to ourselves, and with the 
least mental and moral friction ; for that is just 
the work over which the preacher needs most 
vigilantly to watch, and most sternly to discipline 
himself. Content with his own gifts, he is yet 
not to be content to let them have their own way, 
lest, like an unruly horse, they run away with him 
beyond all bounds. The very ease and pleasant- 
ness with which he exercises them should put him 
on his guard ; for God's great law of labour extends 
throughout all human action, and we can expect 
no Divine blessing w T hen there has been no holy 
and prayerful toil. I take, for instance, the power 
of language, the facile command of words. It is 
a great gift ; sternly disciplined, and curbed by a 
severe propriety and cultivated taste, used as the 
vehicle for solid thought which has been got by 
honest thinking, it is a great gift, — a power fit for 
noble purposes, and worthy of all admiration. And 
yet, undisciplined, uncurbed, allowed to become a 
substitute for solid matter, practised as a fascinating 
kind of self-indulgence, it is about the most fatal 
to a preacher of all his possible faults. The placid 
orator goes on his own self-admiring way, uncon- 



1 84 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VII. 

scibus that sound has taken the place of sense, 
idle platitudes of solid truth, and that painful 
poverty of thought is peering all the while through 
that abundance of words, like a grinning skeleton 
through a mask of flowers. Or the truth may be 
illustrated in a much higher sphere. I take another 
gift of the preacher — the power of illustration. 
Again I say it is a great and enviable gift. Who 
has not been charmed and instructed by it ? And 
yet, undisciplined and used to excess, it may not 
only clog and weary by its abundance, but it may 
even defeat the particular object for which it is used. 
I take that distinguished and eminent preacher, the 
late Dr. Guthrie, as an example. In some of his 
works the vivid power of illustration is charming; 
but in others, and I think in his later sermons, 
it ran palpably into excess. The illustration is so 
full and pictorial, so extended, so graphically 
elaborated, that it actually overlays and conceals 
the very truth it was intended to illustrate. The 
same thing is true even of the exuberant fertility 
of thought which distinguishes some men. The 
late Robert Montgomery has always appeared to 
me to be an example of this. His language is 
crowded with so many ideas, that they confuse 
each other. No one is worked out, because it is 
jostled so closely by another. The whole mental 
vision becomes indistinct, like a great phantas- 



Lect. VII.] THE PREACHER'S G1K1S. 1S5 

magoria, where a thousand images are blended 
together, till there are none left that are distin- 
guishable. I have always thought that, if the 
excessive exuberance of his mind could have been 
severely curbed and rigidly disciplined, he would 
have been both a truly great poet, and one of the 
most distinguished of preachers. If there be one 
part of our faculties that needs to be checked, it 
is that part which we have most natural pleasure 
in exercising. We may have been only gratifying 
ourselves, and worshipping our own net, when we 
fondly, but falsely, thought that we were glorifying 
God. The preacher must deny himself, that he 
may become a polished shaft in the hands of the 
Spirit. He must forget himself, that his Master 
may be all in all. 



Stobjj m xte hearing on ^xtntljmg. 

BY THE REVEREND ALFRED BARRY, D.D., D.C.L., CANON OF 
WORCESTER CATHEDRAL, PRINCIPAL OF KING'S COLLEGE 
LONDON, AND HONORARY CHAPLAIN TO THE QUEEN. 



VIII. 

STUDY IN ITS BEARING ON PREACHING. 

THE preaching of the Gospel, as being the 
delivery of a message of God to man, must 
address itself to every faculty of man's spiritual 
nature. It must enlighten the understanding in its 
power of discerning truth ; it must quicken the imagi- 
nation in its intuition of beauty; it must guide the 
conscience to discover the law of right ; it must 
inspire the heart to realize unity by love. I do not 
mean that these appeals can be separated from one 
another. For, after all, the spirit of man is one ; and 
the presentation to it of any word of God — such, for 
example, as the message of Christ crucified or Christ 
risen — must necessarily affect the whole. What is a 
light to the understanding and the imagination will 
act as a kindling fire on the moral aspirations and 
affections. But still these various influences of the 
Word of God may be distinguished for the sake of 
clearness of conception. And, speaking generally, 
they are distinguished in Holy Scripture by being 
classed under two divisions. The effect of the preach- 



190 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

ing of the Gospel on the intellect, and perhaps the 
imagination, is the hiZaaicaXia, the element of teach- 
ing; the effect on the conscience and affections is 
the TrapdfcXriais, the element of exhortation. St. Paul 
(l Tim. iv. 13) would bid us give heed to both. Both 
seem to him to form the natural sequel of the public 
avdryvaycris or proclamation of the Holy Scripture 
itself. Both require that preparation of " study/' to 
which I am to direct attention. 

It is, however, for teaching that study is especially 
needful. Even for 7rapd/c\r)<TL$ — for the appeal to 
conscience and affection — the practice of all great 
orators seems to show that some study, that is, some 
previous deliberate thought, is more needful than is 
commonly supposed. It gathers, so to speak, the 
store of raw material, on which the occasion of the 
moment stamps suddenly the impression needed. 
But probably, in this department of preaching, 
infinitely more depends on the other elements — I 
mean the practical and devotional elements — of the 
preacher's own spiritual life. Study, though it has 
its place, must be content with a very subordinate 
position. It will be convenient therefore, after this 
short caution against too rigid a restriction of its 
influence, to direct our thoughts to the other element 
of teaching, on which study tells with far greater 
power. 

Suffer me to plead, in passing, for a very distinct 



Lect. VIII.] STUD Y AND PRE A CHING. 1 9 1 

recognition of this didactic element in our preaching. 
In days gone by it may have been excessive ; in our 
own days it is obvious that many other forms of 
teaching share with the pulpit what was once its 
peculiar function. But still I cannot but think, first, 
that there is a large didactic power in the pulpit, 
which — whatever be its inherent defects — nothing can 
supersede, nothing can rival. To the poor and the 
uneducated it is still almost all ; few true ideas of 
any kind are presented to their minds, except through 
the preaching which they hear. Even to those who 
can read and do read for themselves there is a power 
in the spoken word, and in the reverent attention 
necessarily given to it in church, which the same 
word written does not command. If, therefore, the 
element of teaching be lost or overborne in the 
pulpit, it will not be adequately supplied elsewhere. 
And yet, in the next place, I cannot help fearing 
that there is a tendency now-a-days to rely too 
exclusively on the TrapdfcXrjcns. The one praise of 
sermons is that they are " hearty/' " stirring/' " ear- 
nest/' " affectionate." There is a temptation to what 
may truly be called the " sensational " — that is, as I 
understand the word, to what will tell on the ima- 
gination and the affections, without requiring any 
effort of thought and any strain of attention. Men 
seem to be afraid of making the old appeal of the 
Apostle, " I speak as unto wise men : judge ye what 



192 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. VIII. 

I say." Doctrine, as doctrine, it is thought, should 
be relegated to the essay or the lecture : it is enough 
if the sermon rouses the conscience and warms the 
heart I do not mean that there are not noble 
witnesses against this tendency. But i think that 
the tendency is sufficiently common to need a passing 
protest. I would address such a protest earnestly to 
my younger brethren in the ministry. Christianity, 
be it remembered, is a religion based on facts, and 
animated by living principles. To those facts ser- 
mons must bear constant witness, as did St. Peters 
first sermon on the day of Pentecost. Those prin- 
ciples sermons must draw out. and exhibit, as did 
St. ^Paul's sermon on Mars' Hill. In both these 
functions the element of teaching must lay the basis, 
on which the power of exhortation is to build up 
its superstructure. We need not, indeed, always be 
going down to the foundations. But when asked 
on what the building is based, we must answer the 
question ; and it will not be sufficient to point to the 
magnificence of its architecture, the perfection of its 
plan, or the beauty of its design 

In the light of this consideration, then, especially, 
though not exclusively, I speak of " study in its 
bearing upon preaching." I shall try to consider it 
under two divisions. Let me speak of study, first, as 
supplying the material from which preaching draws, 
and next, as directing the process and the method 



Lect. VIII/| STUDY AND PREACHING, 193 

of the preaching itself. The former is perhaps my 
proper subject; and to it, therefore, I shall devote 
the main part of my paper. It will be sufficient to 
say a few words in conclusion upon the latter subject. 

Consider exactly what study is. By study I under- 
stand the deliberate and concentrated application of 
the mind, first, in its perceptive intelligence, to receive 
ideas ; next, in its power of reflection upon them, to 
test them individually, and to harmonize them with 
one another; thirdly, in its impulse to reproduce 
them with the stamp of our own thought upon them, 
possibly, to advance beyond them in the ceaseless 
work of human discovery. This is study. I pray 
you to observe that these elements of its perfection 
may be found both in small things and in great — 
in the five minutes' thought we bestow on a trifle, as 
well as in the days and nights which we may give 
to some profound investigation. They are, moreover, 
(excepting perhaps the last) within the reach of 
almost all minds— certainly of all fairly educated 
minds ; they are arms which may be wielded, and 
ought to be wielded, by the rank and file of the vast 
army of human kind, as well as by the few great 
champions who are born to lead. 

Now, in actual life, especially in the life of ad- 
vanced civilization, the difficulty of study — supposing 
that the duty of study and even its necessity be 
recognised — lies in the " embarrassment of riches," 

13 



194 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

in the infinite variety of subjects which claim it at 
our hands. It is very hard to steer between the 
Scylla of narrow limitation, necessarily distorting the 
mental growth, and the Charybdis of superficiality, 
so diluting the natural energies that there is no 
vigorous growth at all. But we find usually that in 
all vocations there is a recognition, both of what is 
called liberal culture, coming from the studies which 
belong to man as man, and of what we call technical 
study, bearing upon the particular calling of each 
man in life. To balance these is difficult; to lay 
down any law of balance impossible. But the general 
result, to which men roughly come, is this, — that the 
two should always co-exist, but that in early days 
the general should prevail over the technical, in later 
days the technical over the general. 

Now, I do not much like speaking of the ministry 
as a mere profession, still less can I call the studies 
that belong to it " technical," — in the rigid sense in 
which I might apply the word to the studies of an 
engineer or a lawyer. But, nevertheless, I think that 
the general rule applies here. 

Accordingly I hold, first, that if we would be 
efficient ministers, as preachers of the Word, we 
must recognise in their right degree those appli- 
cations of study which belong to us simply as 
educated men and as Englishmen of this nineteenth 
century. It has always been judged an unspeakable 



Lect. VIII.] STUDY AND PREACHING. 195 

advantage, that at the Universities and elsewhere the 
education of our clergy has had a broad liberal basis, 
which prevents them from being a separate caste, and 
guards them from the danger of losing sympathy 
with other vocations of men, all of which may be 
ministries of God, with other manifestations of that 
Truth, which must be in its essential lines and its 
ultimate foundation one. Surely what is thus uni- 
versally recognised in respect to our preparatory 
training, should have its counterpart in the study 
which runs afterwards through our whole ministerial 
life. There should be in it due recognition of 
thoughts, movements, aspirations, lying outside our 
distinctly clerical work. A minister of Christ is a 
man ; in proportion as he follows his Master, he must 
be the truest of men ; and the time-honoured senti- 
ment, "Nihil humani a me alienum puto," ought to 
be infinitely more congenial to his mind, as a Chris- 
tian free man, than it was to the mind of the most 
cultivated heathen slave. They say that no man is 
a good theologian who is nothing but a theologian. 
But certainly no man can be a good preacher to 
men, who has no care for, no thought of, the main 
ideas, whether intellectual or moral, social or political, 
which are dominant in men's minds. If the Church 
is to bear upon the home and the workshop of life, 
the thoughts of the home and the workshop must be 
not unrecognised in the Church. Never yet in the 



196 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

history of our Church have tbte clergy failed to show 
understanding, even to exercise leadership, In various 
fields of thought. I trust that the time of such 
failure will never come. 

But still life is short, and powers are limited. In 
our vocation, most of all, we feel every day more and 
more the need of concentration on that which is our 
special duty as preachers — the declaration of the 
Word of God to man. To this we are bound by our 
solemn ordination vows ; to this we are driven, if we 
are in earnest, by the necessities of daily experience. 
Other studies we may take up i/c irapepyov ; in them 
we may find at once the relaxation of change, 
enlargement of mind, cross-lights of manifold illus- 
tration, thrown upon our own peculiar work in life. 
But the study of the Word of God in the largest 
sense is our true work. Its proclamation is the 
one differentia of our preaching, through which 
a sermon differs from an essay, an oration, or a 
lecture. 

Where shall we read that Word of God ? There 
is an old division which is true enough. There 
are three books — the Book of Nature, the Book ot 
Humanity, the Book of the Revelation of Jesus 
Christ. Remember that in one and all, though in 
the last infinitely above all, we read the Word of 
God. If the teaching of Holy Scripture itself be 
true, we cannot give up the other two books as 



Lect. VIII.] STUDY AND PREACHING 197 

secular. In each there is the handwriting of God 
for those who have eyes to see. 

The Book of Nature, — I delight in the phrase, 
because it asserts that in this wonderful system there 
is a handwriting, and a handwriting surely implies 
a hand. There it lies, always unrolled, before the 
intuition of imagination, and the investigation of 
science. In regard to the former, all ages are much 
on a level ; in regard to the latter, God's providence 
has ordained that in our generation a new flood of 
light has been thrown upon His Book, so that each 
day more of its secrets are deciphered, and yet, by 
each deciphering, new mysteries, yet unread, are 
made visible to us. If God has so ordered it, and 
if by His permission the ideas derived from such 
discovery have profoundly affected the spirit of the 
age, it cannot be right that the preachers of His 
Word should turn their eyes away from it. We 
must come to it — be it acknowledged at once — with 
a foregone conclusion, based upon knowledge derived 
from other sources, that there is the hand of God 
in it, and that we may hope to see its traces. Just 
as the physicist, entering on any new field of study, 
takes it for granted that law must exist and may be 
discoverable, so we, believing in God, know that He 
is there, and hope that we may see the skirts at least 
of His majesty. We enter it with a protest on our 
lips against the belief that there is nothing in 



198 H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

things physical, which physical investigation cannot 
discover, just as we accept the existence of life as a 
fact, although no microscope or scalpel can discover 
its secret. And, moreover, when w r e study the Book 
of Nature, we do so not as mere physicists, but as 
ministers of the Gospel. We care not greatly to 
read any word there, if it be not a word of God. 

But still, with these physical investigations going 
on around us, affecting men's whole habits of thought, 
touching at every point on the frontiers of meta- 
physics and theology, I do think that, as preachers of 
the Word of God, we should study such results as 
have been definitely obtained, and not pass by the 
methods of thought which this physical philosophy 
has made, for good or for evil, familiar to every 
educated man. How can a man, for instance, speak 
of prayer and of God's special providence in total 
ignorance of what science has taught us of the reign 
of law ? How can he call men to adore the creative 
wisdom, with no notion of the new views of that 
wisdom, which the theory (for example) of evolution 
suggests ? How can he expound the book of Genesis, 
without any consideration of the light thrown upon 
the object and method of its teaching by what 
science has discovered of the visible traces of crea- 
tion ? These conceptions, observe, are not buried in 
learned treatises ; they are in all men's mouths ; the 
very air is full of them. We cannot ignore them 



Lect. VIII.] STUD Y AND PRE A CHING. 1 99 

in the church. We are not, I freely admit, to turn 
our pulpits into chairs of science, to substitute the 
history of nature for the history of salvation. But 
by what we say — and let me add, by what we do 
not say — we ought to show some study of the Book 
of Nature, with such lights as science has kindled 
below, and with the supreme light of the Sun of Right- 
eousness from above. As long as Septuagesima 
and Trinity read us the story of Creation, and the 
Benedicite, like a grand respond, calls on "All the 
works of the Lord to praise Him and magnify 
Him for ever," such study cannot be foreign to the 
preaching of the Word of God. 

Then there is the Book of Humanity, in which 
history has recorded the deeds, in which literature 
and language have embodied the thoughts, of men. 
In it, far more vividly than in Nature, the hand- 
writing of God ought to be read. The study of it, 
I believe — modern fashion notwithstanding — to be 
infinitely higher and closer to us than the study of 
Nature. I cannot, therefore, regret that the educa- 
tion of our clergy is more largely concerned with 
it. Here once more, in respect of self-consciousness 
and the experience of life, all ages are much on 
a level in the school of humanity. But in relation 
to what is more commonly termed stu^y, we can 
hardly doubt that the power of literature in general, 
and of the historical methods of thought and inves- 



200 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII 

tigation in particular, in relation to facts, opinions, 
religious faiths of ages past, is wonderfully increased 
in our days. The power of literary production is 
prolific to a fault ; the sphere of its influence has 
greatly widened, even if to some degree at the 
expense of its depth. I cannot conceive that a man 
can speak to his fellow-men with full persuasiveness, 
who is altogether ignorant of the currents which 
are actually swaying and directing their thoughts. 
A preacher must not only think, but read. Of 
course, here again remembering his work, he should 
read with a view not to what is merely human, but 
to what in literature is the word of God, heard 
through all human voices, and underlying all human 
peculiarities. Nothing is to my mind more repulsive 
than the sermon which is a mere pasticcio of quota- 
tions, perhaps from every book except the Bible, 
in which the unity and massiveness of God's message 
are lost. Nothing is more pitiful than the sermon 
which is a mere reflexion of the literature of the 
day, popular or profound, with no higher light in 
it, and no Divine centre to which all is to be 
referred. But still, so far as men speak what is 
good and true and beautiful, it is God who speaks 
in them. How often do we recognise, as even the 
stern Tertullian recognised, in those who do not 
speak as Christians, the " testimonium animae 
naturaliter Christianse " I How often are we startled 



Lect. VIII.] STUDY AND PREACHING. 201 

to find them not far from the kingdom of God — 
nearer it, perhaps, than we ! How often have they 
taught us, even by the vehemence of their protests, 
the value of parts of the gospel itself, which we 
had forgotten or depreciated ! A preacher, I grant, 
should study the book of humanity in the light of 
his own self-consciousness and in the priceless 
revelations of pastoral experience ; but he should 
find time for some study of men's written thoughts, 
taking care that it is study, and not mere idle recep- 
tion of ideas, and that the time and thought which 
he can spare be given to a few books well chosen, 
rather than be diffused, and by diffusion wasted, over 
many. 

But you will anticipate that I speak of these two 
lower books of God, only to lead up to the Book 
of Books, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. We hold 
that book to be the key to the books of Nature 
and of Humanity, bringing out plainly and dis- 
tinctly what in them is often veiled in a magnificent 
vagueness, interpreting into human language what 
speaks in them like the voice of the thunders of 
the Apocalypse. Our ultimate difference with the 
thoughtful unbeliever is, that with him the vox Dei 
is the vox Popirii, the matured and collective wisdom 
of humanity; while we, refusing not that voice, yet 
hold the clear articulate vox Christi to be the true 
vox Dei — the dominant note which is intelligible 



202 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

alone, but without which the others are but confused 
and unmeaning. 

It is wholly needless to plead in the abstract for 
the study of Holy Scripture, and yet we can hardly 
listen to sermons without feeling that our practice 
is greatly defective. Look first at the Holy 
Scripture itself. The Bible is read ; it is textually 
known ; its Divine maxims rise to our thoughts 
and lips ; its language colours every expression. 
But it is not always studied, either in its parts or 
as a whole, with the reverent concentration of 
thought which the Word of God must claim. You 
may note this even in isolated passages. How 
often sermons turn wholly on misunderstanding of 
texts ! I suppose that every one has heard earnest 
addresses on the " Almost thou persuadest me to 
be a Christian/' I once heard a sermon, excellent 
in itself, on the " seeing through a glass darkly," in 
which the preacher dwelt on the effect of an inter- 
vening medium to obscure and colour the light, 
forgetting than in St. Paul's actual words there is 
nothing about glass and nothing about darkness. 
Scores of preachers, in the controversy on justifi- 
cation, have quoted the maxim, " Whatever is not 
of faith is sin," without thinking for a moment 
what the context shows its obvious meaning to be. 
But infinitely more common, infinitely more 
serious, is the utter defect in knowledge of what 



Lect. VIII.] STUDY AND PREACHING. 203 

I may call the structure of Holy Scripture. We 
hold the Bible, in spite of the vast differences of 
its parts, as regards age and authorship, to be a 
whole — as we commonly say, an " organic whole " 
— in which no two parts are absolutely alike, and 
all the parts bear upon each other and upon the 
whole. But yet how seldom do we find in preachers 
clear signs of a familiar knowledge of this Divine 
structure ! If a doctrine is to be set forth from 
Scripture, how often we hear texts poured out one 
after another from a Concordance ! how seldom 
do we find a deliberate attempt to trace out its 
development in the actual order of God's dispen- 
sation, which is, be it observed, a part of the 
Revelation itself! And again, though perhaps less 
frequently, yet still far too often, we hear a text 
dwelt upon without any distinct reference to the 
context, — without, for example, any recognition of 
the great subject of the book in which it occurs, 
and the light which this throws on the particulai 
utterance of the text. I confess that these things 
seem to me unpardonable, because they imply a 
neglect of the study, properly so called, of the 
Word of God. 

I have spoken here of Holy Scripture itself; yet 
may I not add a plea for the study also of that 
which bears on its interpretation ? The Bible did 
not fall down, as one book, or a series of books, 



204 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

from heaven. In respect of the Gospel itself, we 
need occasionally a more thoughtful consideration 
of the true method of Divine Revelation, — of the 
relation of the written word of the Bible to the 
embodied grace of God in what we call the Church. 
Men seem to forget that the Church existed as a 
widely spread and organized body, based upon 
Apostolic doctrine, animated by Apostolic inspira- 
tion, before the New Testament as a whole existed. 
True, that in the New Testament we have the 
ultimate authority of all things necessary to sal- 
vation ; but is it not clear that the history of the 
deeds and thoughts of the Church must necessarily 
bear powerfully on the interpretation of Scripture? 
The Acts of the Apostles is the first book of Church 
history. Must not the germs, sown by Apostolic 
hands, have unfolded themselves in ages to come ? 
The theology of the Church, embodied in her creeds, 
her liturgies, her doctors, her councils, is simply the 
product of the thought of Christian centuries, ponder- 
ing the fundamental teaching of Christ and His 
Apostles. Can it be valueless in its interpretation 
of that teaching ? Yet preachers too often feel no 
shame, perhaps even pride themselves, in an igno- 
rance which betrays itself only too plainly, to &11 
who have studied the Bible, remembering how God 
actually gave it. 

We in the Church of England can plead no 



Lect. VI I L] STUD Y AND PRE A CHING, 205 

excuse, either for neglect of the actual history of 
the Revelation of Christ, or for the contempt of 
systematic theology. Our Prayer Book, our Creeds, 
our Articles are witnesses against us, if we fall into 
either. There are times when it may be well for 
a moment to put all aside, in order to be, so to 
speak, face to face w r ith Holy Scripture, and with 
it alone. But when we have done this, then it is 
well to compare these our own impressions in their 
freshness with what history and theology have long 
matured. Often we find that what seems to us a 
new original light, destined to shed a fresh radiance 
on the world, is a conception which in the past 
has been tried and found wanting. Often, when 
this is not so, and when there remains after due 
test a new word of God to ourselves, still the 
comparison with what has been of old will purify 
it from excrescence, and will deepen its essential 
power. 

It is for this kind of study also that there is need 
to plead in days which rightly exalt exegesis, but 
too much depreciate systematic theology. 

These defects in the study of Holy Scripture 
are due to many causes, over and above the natural 
indolence of men in the search after truth. Some- 
thing is due to early familiarity with Holy Scripture, 
in the days when we can seize on parts and 
cannot grasp the whole ; something to the use of 



206 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

it in the Church Service, in which it necessarily 
appears piecemeal ; but perhaps most of all is due 
to the want of a distinction between the devotional 
study of Holy Scripture as a part of our daily 
worship and " inquiry of God," and the thorough 
critical study, which every one who is to be a 
teacher must give to the subject of his teaching. 
The one must be fragmentary ; so only can we 
gather up, day by day, the crumbs of His Word 
for ourselves. The other must be continuous ; the 
work of each day, if it be but a few verses, 
must be thorough in itself, and part of a gradual 
accumulation of treasure. By the one we assimilate, 
if I may so say, the tone and spirit of God's Word 
for the element of the TrapdfcXrjcrt,? ; by the other 
we grasp its revelation, so far as it can be grasped, 
for the basis of our 8t$acrfca\ia. Each has its 
priceless value ; both are spoilt, if they be allowed 
to run into each other. 

But, whatever be the cause, I cannot but feel 
that in these days we must urge study on our 
preachers. Of the three elements of spiritual life, 
the element of devotional earnestness (thank God !) 
has been marvellously revived ; the element of 
practical activity for good has had, if possible, an 
even greater revival : but the intellectual element 
has not kept pace. Of all our wants, the greatest ' 
is of a profound theology, capable of assimilating 



Lect. VIII.] STUDY AND PREACHING. 207 

our great advances in discovery of truth, capable 
of answering, or showing to be unanswerable, the 
urgent inquiries, moral, social, and spiritual, which 
are imperiously pressing on the Church. 

I may be told that I hold up an impossible ideal. 
But I am not so foolish as to suppose that the 
whole field of study can be covered by any one 
man ; nor am I ignorant that the degree of power 
of study must vary infinitely with talents, age, 
and opportunity. But if we are to teach, we must 
learn ; and each according to our measure we may 
learn, if we will. Let us only be strongly possessed 
with the truth that it is not enough to work and to 
feel — that it is a sacred duty to think — and we shall 
find both the time and the way. Two or three 
hours in the early morning, jealously reserved from 
even the most sacred occupations, and systematically 
used, will do wonders. For each has his own 
function in teaching. If our powers and opportu- 
nities be small, let this be wisely narrowed. What- 
ever we teach, let it be what we have tried to 
know. Where we have no time to think, let us 
not presume to speak. 

Now, with regard to this study, I cannot advise — 
what I have sometimes heard urged — that in all 
our study we should constantly have before us the 
thought of preaching, and should always be reading 
with a view to reproduction. This seems to me a 



208 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

vicious system, something like what we call " cram- 
ming " — that is, reading with a view to examination, 
and not to intrinsic knowledge. All study, which 
is to be worth anything, must concern itself with 
truth, and truth alone. If we can master any part 
of God's truth under His blessing, it will be sure 
to tell upon our proclamation of His Word. There 
is a great difference between speaking out of what 
we have read, and reading up what we have got 
to speak. I do not say that, if we are pondering 
beforehand the subjects of our preaching, there 
will not be a natural tendency to assimilate all 
that we are studying. But this natural assimilation 
is one thing ; the artificial forcing of our study into 
a groove is altogether another. 

And this leads me on by a natural transition to 
the second kind of study, of which I need speak 
only briefly — the study to be bestowed on the form 
and substance of what we preach. 

Here again, in the outset, let me plead for 
something higher than the consideration of what 
will be effective, what will strike the majority of 
our hearers. For if we may judge by the popularity 
and the actual influence of preachers, this standard 
will be an uncertain and unsatisfactory one. We 
must consider, of course, our congregation, and strive 
for what will be within their reach. I might urge, 
however that true simplicity needs the greatest 



Lect. VIII.] STUDY AND PREACHING, 209 

previous thought, and that every sermon, if it 
contains much for the many, should also contain 
something for the few. But I prefer to put forward 
the thought that what we are to speak is God's 
message, and that we should devote to it our very 
best — just as ancient artists, working in a religious 
spirit, would carry out their work to perfection, even 
if no eyes of men were likely to rest upon it. This 
is the wisest, the noblest, and yet the humblest, 
principle of study. Let our hearers be few and 
simple, still it is to God that we give account for 
what we speak. 

Holding, then, that on what we are to preach we 
should bestow the best study which we can give, I 
proceed to inquire how that study is best bestowed. 
And here I would urge giving our chief time and 
pains to the careful thinking out of the substance of 
our preaching. Perhaps the hardest part of our work 
is to choose that subject, and to know what God 
would have us speak. For this we need the most 
thoughtful study; for this the most earnest prayer. 
There are many helps : to Churchmen the order of 
the Christian year, the beautiful series of the Lections 
and the Psalms, are simply invaluable. But happily 
there is no unbendiug rule, saving us the trouble of 
thinking. Each must consider for himself — What 
does God put into my heart ? what does His provi- 
dence over the life of my people demand ? Probably 

14 



2io HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

many preachers know the experience of frequent 
perplexity on this matter, and the sudden relief when, 
after long thought and prayer, it flashes on the mind 
— This, then, is what I must say ; this is the word 
which the Lord would have me speak. 

When this is done, then comes the next, not less 
important, stage of study. The subject must be well 
thought out, well worked out, before we even think 
of actual composition. Necessarily the study must 
begin in Holy Scripture, with those aids to its inter- 
pretation of which I have spoken. But when this is 
secured, I would urge a glance at least at the other 
two books of God, — to see whether, as Hooker puts it, 
the law supernatural, while it transcends the natural, 
does not harmonize with it, and is not illustrated by 
it, and to try whether the study of humanity, either 
in books or in the experience of the week, may 
not contribute something to the same needful illus- 
tration. But in whatever way we study, the subject 
of our sermon, as a complete whole, should be 
fashioned out, moulded, proportioned in our minds. 
It is impossible to give too much of our time and 
thought here. 

But when we come to the actual composition of 
the sermon, I am inclined to think that, for the sake 
of energy and freshness in the word spoken, it is 
good that within limits it be rapid. My own con- 
sideration and experience lead me to recognise cha- 



Lect. VI 1 1.] STUD Y AND PRE A CHING. 2 1 1 

racteristic advantages both in the sermon written 
and the sermon in which the words are really ex- 
temporary. They da not recommend the sermon 
delivered memoriter, which, however, is, I know, 
sanctioned by high authority. But in whatever way 
we compose, I do not think that for our ordinary 
sermons it is good to compose slowly and elaborately. 
What we gain in abstract perfection, we are apt to 
lose x in energy and life. In many instances, when we 
complain that sermons are not sufficiently studied, it 
is rather that study is misplaced — too much bestowed 
on the words, too little on the thought — too much on 
the parts, too little on the whole. 

It may be asked, * Is there not frequent necessity 
for speaking without study on the spur of the 
moment ? Are not sudden inspirations occasionally 
the fullest of energy and of fruit?" Undoubtedly; 
but it is the habit of study in general which gives 
such readiness and clearness of mind as may enable 
us to dispense with it in exceptional cases. What 
we think to be sudden flashes of thought are often 
the final outcome of long silent gatherings of force. 

It may be said again, "After all, we must con- 
sider what is possible for the mass of men amidst all 
the distractions of other work. Is not the ideal held 
up rather too wide or too high for practice ? " It 
may be so ; but, after all, we must have a high ideal, 
if we are to have even a moderate practical standard. 



212 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. VIII. 

If we know that we must study as a solemn duty, 
we shall find time and thought for it. For those 
young in the ministry, especially for those in deacons' 
orders, the remedy in case of such difficulties, per- 
haps, lies not in preaching without study, but in 
preaching less often than we do, or in varying preach- 
ing by catechetical lecture, and by that exposition 
of continuous passages of Scripture, which I cannot 
but think to be far too much neglected in the Church 
of England. Nor, with the example of the old use 
of the Homilies before us, can I help thinking that 
occasionally to bring before our people the sermons 
of others, provided that it be avowedly done, and 
that we take pains thoroughly to master their 
substance and their spirit, might relieve both them 
and us. 

But I must conclude. It is needless to say that 
the subject is very far from being exhausted. I shall 
be satisfied if I have suggested a few thoughts, a few- 
cautions, drawn mostly from my own experience. 
It will not, I am sure, be supposed that, in dwelling 
upon the need of study, I institute any comparison 
whatever between it and the value of practical experi- 
ence and of devotional life. It will, I trust, be still 
less supposed that I forget that the true revelation 
can come only from Him who is the Word of God, 
believed in and known by ourselves, and that the 
inspiration which moves ourselves and others is 



Lect. VIII.] STUD Y AND PRE A CHING. 213 

simply the breath of the Holy Spirit. The question 
is, How shall we receive the revelation ? How shall 
we catch the inspiration from on high ? 

There is the way of doing. " If any man will do 
the will of my Father, he shall know of the doctrine, 
whether it be of God." There is the way of prayer, 
which St. Paul, in the Ephesian Epistle, took for 
himself and his disciples, that through it they might 
" know that which passeth knowledge." I urge also 
that there is the way of study, wrapping our face in 
the mantle of spiritual thought, that we may go out 
and stand before the Lord, and listen to the still 
small voice, heard only by those who have ears to 
hear. 



®|tt Sfuim 0f Jpolir Scttyhxxt tmifr n bwfa icr % 
^xt^nxntxan 0f Sermons, 

BY THE VERY REVEREND JOHN JAMES STEWART PEROWNE, 
D.D., HONORARY CHAPLAIN TO THE QUEEN, AND DEAN 
OF PETERBOROUGH, 



IX. 

THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE WITH A 
VIEW TO THE PREPARATION OF SERMONS. 

" JQONUS textuarius bonus theologus!' If that 
means that a man who can skilfully analyse 
texts of Scripture and marshal them in array to prove 
doctrines is a good theologian, I must be permitted 
to question the truth of the aphorism. If it means 
that one who has a mastery of the text of Scripture 
as the great storehouse from which all theology is 
drawn is a good theologian, there can be no question 
as to the truth. But would it be equally true to say 
Bonus textuarius bonus concionator? Not perhaps 
without some limitation. For the preacher needs 
other qualifications besides knowledge even of Scrip- 
ture : he needs keenness and point, wealth of illustra- 
tion and force of diction, the glowing imagination, 
and above all the burning heart, if he is to strike 
home to the hearts and consciences of his hearers. 
Still it is certain that the preacher ought to be a 
theologian ; for a very essential part of his office is 
to teach. I think it is George Herbert who says that 



218 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

the object of a sermon is twofold — "to inform and to 
inflame." It is the object, I suppose, which every 
good speaker sets before him, whatever the topic of 
his discourse, to inform first, to explain and unfold 
his meaning, to convince the understanding, and then, 
having secured this vantage ground, thence to make 
his appeals to the affections. This is indisputably the 
essential character of all good preaching. But then 
it is no less certain that the source whence we are to 
draw our instruction is Holy Scripture. For ministers 
of the Church of England there can be no question 
on this point. Our Church sends us at our Ordina- 
tion, not to Fathers or Councils, not to ponderous 
tomes of mediaeval learning, or to compendious sys- 
tems of theology, but to Holy Scripture itself as our 
main and constant study. We bind ourselves to this 
study as the work of our lives. We engage to teach 
nothing to our congregations but what is to be found 
in, or may be gathered from, Holy Scripture. I am 
afraid that we are not always sufficiently mindful of 
our obligation in this respect. No reasonable man 
would, of course, wish to see a clergyman cast aside 
all other studies. General literature, history, poetry, 
science, fiction, may all contribute to enrich his mind, 
and to give breadth to his conceptions and strength 
to his study of the Word of God. But no other 
pursuits, no other part of his ministerial work, ought 
to draw him away from his first and proper study. 



," 



Lect. IX.] STUD Y OF HOL Y SCRIP TURE. 2 1 9 

If this study be neglected, nothing else can take the 
place of it ; our sermons must grow thin and poor, 
and we shall send our hearers empty away, if we 
think it enough to take the customary text, and to 
divide it in the customary style, and to fill up our 
divisions out of our own emptiness, or out of the 
crude ill-digested supply which we have hastily 
gathered from some favourite treasure-house. 

We are all accustomed to hear a great deal about 
the dulness, the insipidity, the verbiage, the platitudes 
of the pulpit. Charges made in the sweeping style 
in which our critics indulge we may be sure are 
often unjust, and I am persuaded that when men cry 
out that sermons are uninteresting, the fault is in the 
hearer as well as, sometimes perhaps more than, in 
the preacher. But having said this, I am also bound 
to say that there is one element in our sermons 
which might be made much more prominent than it 
is, and that is the element of instruction. A friend 
of mine, a distinguished layman in the University of 
Cambridge, once said to me, " There is one thing we 
want, one thing we miss in sermons, and that is in- 
struction." I am persuaded he is right. If we would 
take pains to teach our people out of the Scriptures, 
if instead of supposing we have discharged our duty 
when we have picked out a text, and hung upon it a 
sermon which perhaps has very little to do with the 
text, if it is not a complete misrepresentation of the 



220 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

text, — if instead of this mode of manufacturing ser- 
mons, we were really to strive to ascertain, and bring 
out, and set forth in a clear and lively manner, the 
meaning of the Scriptures, we should never lack 
fruitful subject, and never, I am persuaded, be without 
attentive hearers ; and what is more, our instruc- 
tion would not be forgotten : it would live in men, 
and build them up. We do not want sermons that 
shall be laboured, and fruitless attempts to reconcile 
science and Scripture, when the preacher himself 
knows nothing of science ; we do not want apologies 
for Scripture: we want to let Scripture speak for 
itself; we want to make men feel that it is not dead, 
but living — not the record of past generations, but 
that it is ever fresh and young with immortal truth. 

Let me venture, then, to say a few words on the 
method in which it appears to me our study of Scrip- 
ture should be conducted in order that it may be 
brought to bear upon the instruction we deliver from 
our pulpits. 

I. In the first place, we must discard altogether the 
notion that our business is merely to take a text, or 
even merely to look at the context. Our great duty 
as students of Scripture is to remember that Scrip- 
ture is a whole. It has a living organic unity, and 
a varied growth and development, the recognition of 
which is essential if we would wield any portion of 
it as an instrument of power. It is full indeed of 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 221 

variety, rich in diversity ; and yet there is unity in 
the variety, exactly as we see it in the natural world : 
the unity more delightful, because so many forms 
conspire to produce it ; the variety more charming", 
because every graceful curve, every shade of changeful 
colour, every seeming irregularity, brings us back 
to the central unity. Just as the branches of th 
tree are many, and the leaves of the tree multitudi- 
nous, and no two leaves alike, and yet it is one 
tree, — one by virtue of a law of organic growth that 
gives it its unity ; just as there are many members, 
many senses, many organs in the human body, yet it 
is one body ; just as the mountain has its glaciers 
and its pine forests, its snows and its flowers, its 
deep ravines, its craggy peaks, its grassy slopes, its 
dashing torrents, and yet is one mountain ; just as 
all the families of men differ in form and fashion, in 
speech and gait, and yet human nature is one : so is 
it with the Bible. Its books were written in different 
ages, compiled, perhaps, from ancient records written 
by different men under circumstances the most widely 
different, presenting to us every phase of human life 
and thought — the life of the city and the desert, the 
life of the shepherd and the trader, the life of the 
camp and the court ; differing moreover in purpose 
and style — some historic, some didactic, some poetical, 
some prophetic, some epistolary: nevertheless they 
are one ; one as the record, in a sense in which 



222 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

no other books are the record, of God's revelation 
of Himself to man, in and by the Church, in and 
by that Divine kingdom which He has set up 
upon earth ; one, because one great central figure 
gives meaning and unity to all ; one, because the 
same Holy Spirit of God guided the minds and 
filled the hearts of those who wrote. No one has 
illustrated this truth more pertinently or more beauti- 
fully than the greatest of the teachers of the early 
Church — I mean Origen — when he compares the 
Scriptures to some vast instrument of infinite com- 
pass, or rather to some great orchestra where many 
performers on many instruments conspire to one vast 
harmony of sound.* 

This unity, indeed, rests on the fact of the In- 
carnation. If the Incarnation be a fact, then not 
merely the records of the incarnate life, and the 
interpretations and comments on that life, but the 
historical preparation for that life, cannot be sepa- 
rated from the fact itself. Here, therefore, at once we 
see a principle of order, of cohesion, of unity. Christ 
is the centre round which all is grouped. The law, 
the history, the prophecy, all meet and have their 
fulfilment in Him. 

But if we have ever deeply felt and acknowledged 
this truth, it is impossible that we should rest satisfied 
with that mere text-handling which is so common 
* Comment on Matt. v. 9. Opp. (De la Rue), torn, iii., p. 441. 



Lect. IX.J STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 223 

in our pulpits. "The Bible," says a recent writer, 
" ought surely to be ' expounded in order ' to the 
disciples. If it be, as we suppose, a record of a 
progressive and continuous revelation, it will carry 
with it traces of the action of the same intelligence 
which reveals itself in nature. What do we find 
there ? Nature is a living and complex whole, 
absolutely unintelligible in fragments, and requiring, 
alike for its scientific explanation and highest prac- 
tical use, connected study of its unity. No man in 
his senses would now think of teaching any science 
after the fashion in which many of us teach the 
Divine Revelation, by means exclusively of orations 
on isolated facts and phenomena. Careful, complete 
and continuous induction of facts is considered the 
least that any science teacher can supply to his 
pupils, who are thus enabled to build up true know- 
ledge of laws and forces on the basis of accurate 
and complete information. It is the eye that looks, 
but it is the mind that sees — that inner eye" which 
thus discerns the general truth amidst particulars, 
the evolution of the far-reaching plan, the correlation 
of forces, and the meaning of isolated phenomena. 
Can we believe that this same all-embracing, all- 
continuously-thinking mind of God has wrought 
differently in man's redemption from sin and death, 
or can be satisfied with seeing His scholars picking 
up scattered grains and elements of thought like 



224 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX 

so many chickens, taking their gospel throughout a 
lifetime from a preachers version of selected verses 
in the mighty record, without bringing their minds 
into direct and steady contact with the amply 
supplied materials for a personal and inductive under- 
standing of the coherent truth ? If nature had still 
been treated thus by mankind, science and art would 
have remained at their old low-water mark. If the 
tide of science now overflows, like Jordan in harvest, 
it is because man's mind has done homage to the 
continuity of God's, by rising from local particulars 
into the realm of general ideas." * 

I would therefore urge, in the first place, a syste- 
matic, continuous study of the whole Bible. And it 
will add of course very materially to the value of 
such study, if we strive, as far as possible, to follow 
the chronological order of the books. We cannot 
always pretend here to be on sure ground. Still, 
with a few exceptions, about which there is, and 
probably always will be, considerable difference of 
opinion, the date of a book may be reasonably and 
approximately fixed. In the New Testament we all 
feel how immense is the gain when we read St. Paul's 
Epistles in their chronological sequence, and with a 
reference to the circumstances of the writer and the 

* Rev. Edward White " On Connected Explanation of Holy- 
Scripture " : a paper read at a Preachers' Conference held in 
London. 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 225 

circumstances of the church he is addressing. In 
the Old Testament, though we have far less means 
of ascertaining the date of the Psalms, for instance, 
yet whenever we can connect them with any portion 
of Davids life, or with the fortunes of the Israelites! 
at any crisis of the national history, they strike us 
with fresh force and beauty. So, again, it is with the 
prophecies. In proportion as we can connect them 
with the history of the times in which they were 
uttered, with the life of the prophet himself, and 
the life of his people, or, as our modern knowledge 
enables us to do, with the fortunes and vicissitudes 
of other nations, we catch a meaning in words, an 
appropriateness in images, which might help us not 
only to enrich and adorn our sermons, but to make 
them more vigorous, more pointed, more real in their 
tone. 

This, I think, is the first thing that we should bear 
in mind in our study of Holy Writ — its living, organic 
unity. This will not prevent our recognizing — it will 
rather aid us in recognizing — the growth and develop- 
ment of revelation. We shall discern a correlation 
between the growth of the Divine kingdom upon 
earth and the disclosure of Divine truth. We shall 
not expect to find the good news of God in Genesis 
as we find it in the Gospel of St. John, or the resur- 
rection in the book of Job as we find it in St. Paul's 
first Epistle to the Corinthians. Nay, more : we shall 



226 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

confess, as we read many of the Psalms, or Job, or 
Ecclesiastes, that men were trained to the reception 
of higher truths through severe discipline, struggle, 
aspiration, failure ; and that the revelation was not 
only gradual and partial, given " in many portions 
and in divers manners," but that it was made not 
only to man, but through man, won by conflict, and 
vouchsafed to prayer. 

II. But again, as all Scripture has thus its unity, 
so each separate book has, for the most part, a unity 
subordinate to the whole, — a unity of some special 
object and teaching. Of course there are exceptions 
to this rule. Each Psalm stands alone, and must be 
interpreted by itself. The Proverbs are, for the most 
part, a string of gnomic sentences having no cohesion ; 
though, both at the beginning and the end of the 
book, there are passages of sustained and continuous 
reflection. In the historical books the unity is merely 
one of subject, not of purpose or form ; and there we 
may either study a life or a character as a whole, or 
trace the political decay, or the energetic reform, or 
the spiritual revival, in any period to which we choose 
to confine our attention. 

But how much may be learnt, for instance, from 
the articulate structure of a book like Genesis, where 
the history steadily develops into a history of the 
line of promise, all other families breaking off from 
it into their several lines, and being dropped on the 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 227 

way! How much, again, from the book of Exodus, 
when we have learnt to see how in its very outline it 
prefigures the history of redemption, the harshness 
and cruelty of the bondage, the longing for escape, 
the mighty hand and the outstretched arm, and the 
mediator by whom deliverance is wrought, and the 
passage of the sea ; then the consecration of the 
whole nation to be priests before a priesthood is 
instituted, before the law is given ; then the law ; 
lastly, the ordinances of service ! Who can reflect 
upon the mere bare outline of the book which I 
have thus sketched without seeing how immensely a 
consecutive study of it must aid us in a thorough and 
satisfactory dealing- with details or particular points ? 
Or take again that magnificent poem, the poem of 
Job. Difficulties will always meet us in the study of 
it, doubts must always rest upon the interpretation of 
particular passages, though the light which has been 
shed upon it by modern critical skill and research is 
very considerable. But we shall hardly fall into any 
serious error of interpretation when we have once 
grasped the purpose of the book. It is the grandest 
lesson ever given to the world on the nature and 
design of suffering. It is the most wonderful record 
of a personal experience, struggling with and van- 
quishing a traditional belief; whilst the prologue of 
the book teaches us that there may be a higher 
purpose in suffering than any of which the sufferer 



228 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

is himself conscious ; that it may be not only for 
the purification of the sufferer, which was what Job 
learnt, but for the glory of God. Time forbids my 
dwelling upon this at large ; but I may refer to such 
introductions to the book of Job as those of Mr. 
Froude, M. Godet, and especially that of Mr. Cox, 
in certain numbers of the Expository as containing a 
masterly analysis of the poem. 

I could add many more examples of this kind, but 
I must refer you to the introductions to the various 
books of Scripture by our great modern exegetes for 
illustrations upon this point. Here none I suppose 
will deny the enormous superiority of our modern 
commentaries to the ancient. It would not be too 
much to say that there are some books of Holy 
Scripture, the true key to the interpretation of which 
God has been pleased to give first to our own age. 
We may well tremble if we are faithless to such a 
trust. 

Now, I believe there can be no greater benefit to 
a Christian congregation than a series of exegetical 
discourses on some book of Scripture. This will be 
an agreeable variation from the preaching from the 
single text. If the preacher, having first thoroughly 
studied the book as a whole, goes through it, not 
verse by verse, but paragraph by paragraph, showing 
how the thoughts are linked together, bringing out 
and expressing and illustrating the prominent truths, 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 229 

he cannot fail to instruct and edify. He will in the 
course of his expositions have taught many doctrines, 
inculcated many valuable lessons, not in a formal or 
technical manner, but in that natural living way in 
which they flowed fresh from the author's heart, as 
the things which God had given him to know and to 
teach. 

And further — and this I feel to be of the deepest 
importance — he will train his congregation to be 
students of the Bible for themselves. I think I never 
read the Gospel of St. John with so much fresh 
interest and delight as when I read it after listening 
to those admirable expository lectures on it which 
the late Dean Alford delivered on Sunday afternoons 
when he was minister of Quebec Chapel. 

But even if we do not go consecutively through a 
book, there is this obvious advantage in the method 
that I am advocating, that it gives us a power and a 
facility in dealing with individual texts and passages 
which no other method of study can give. We no 
longer look at them as mottoes for a discourse. We 
see the thoughts to which they are linked ; we dis- 
cern something of their relative importance. Our 
sermons will gain immensely in clearness and force 
and authority. At least, we shall never be tempted 
to neglect the context. We shall try to ascertain, 
and therefore to teach, not what a verse may mean, 
or be made to mean when isolated from all that sur- 



230 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

rounds it, but what it meant first to the writer, and 
then how it may be applied to our own needs, in the 
age and the society in which we live. Thus we shall 
be kept from that exaggerated and even perverted 
handling of texts to which I suppose we have all had 
at times to listen with a sense of weariness and pain. 
If, indeed, there is one golden rule for a preacher, it 
is this: Always look at your context. We have all 
heard the story of the young man beginning his 
theological studies at Oxford, who asked the vene- 
rable president of Magdalen, then in his ninetieth 
year, " Is there any special piece of advice you can 
give me — any one rule more than another by which 
I am to guide myself in my studies ? " The well- 
known answer was, "Always verify your references." 
I am sure that for all preachers, for all theologians, 
a yet more important rule is, ALWAYS LOOK AT 
YOUR CONTEXT. 

If this were done, would it be possible to hear a 
sermon on the Atonement preached from such a 
passage as Isaiah lxiii. I, "Who is this that cometh 
from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ? this 
that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the great- 
ness of his strength ? " The answer to the prophet's 
question in the same verse, it is true, is only this : 
"I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." 
But when he asks, in the next verse, "Wherefore art 
thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 231 

that treadeth in the wine-fat ? " the answer is not, 
" I give my back to the smiters, I am stained with 
my own blood/' but, "I have trodden down the 
people in mine anger, and trampled them in my 
fury, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, 
and I have stained all my raiment. For the day 
of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my 
redeemed is come." The redemption is the redemp- 
tion of Israel, to be wrought not by suffering, but 
by carnage : the victor wades knee-deep in the blood 
of his foes. Nor should we hear an argument for the 
necessity of an Incarnation based upon Psalm xlix. 7, 
" None of them can by any means redeem his brother,- 
nor give to God a ransom for him/' when it is so 
undeniably certain — so evident from the most hasty 
glance at the context — that the psalmist is insisting 
on the truth that no wealth can save the possessor 
or others from death. Nor in the 110th Psalm would 
the words (ver. 7), " He shall drink of the brook in 
the way, therefore shall he lift up the head," be 
expounded of the sufferings of the Messiah, when 
the close of the preceding verse describes him as 
"wounding the heads (or head) over many countries." 
Nor would the saying (Eccl. xi. 3), " Where the tree 
falleth, there it shall be," be quoted in proof of the 
impossibility of repentance in another life ; or the 
prediction in Malachi i. 1 1, " My name shall be great 
among the Gentiles, and in every place shall incense 



232 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

be offered unto my name, and a pure offering," be 
interpreted of the Eucharist. Nor, again, should we 
find preachers taking the words of Job's friends, or 
the sometimes half-sceptical utterances of Ecclesi- 
astes, as if they were Divine truths to be illustrated 
and enforced from the pulpit. Again, the passage in 
Phil. ii. 12, 13, "Work out your own salvation with 
fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you 
both to will and to do of His good pleasure," is 
often taken as a text for ar sermon on man's co- 
operation with God in the work of salvation, whereas 
we have only to read the whole of the twelfth verse 
to see that the point of the apostle's exhortation is 
something very different. So, again, I have heard 
Heb. iv. 12, "For the word of God is quick and 
powerful," etc., applied to the Scriptures, whereas 
the context shows (see ver. 2 of the chapter) that 
the writer is speaking of the word preached. And 
it almost makes one despair of any fair interpre- 
tation of Scripture when one sees a passage like 
Heb. xiii. 10, "We have an altar, whereof they have 
no right to eat which serve the tabernacle," expounded 
of the Lord's table, and of the Christian sacrifice of 
the Eucharist. It is not too much to say of such 
an explanation that it has no kind of support in the 
context, and is opposed to the whole scope of the 
epistle. The word " altar," most unfortunately, as I 
venture to think, applied in the third century (I 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 233 

believe there is no earlier instance) to the Lord's 
table, was quite enough to suggest the interpretation, 
with utter disregard of the writer's meaning here, and 
of his general argument. 

III. There is another point closely connected with 
this study of books as a whole, on which I am anxious 
to say a- few words. 

When we adopt what I may venture to call the 
textual method of treating Scriptures — when, that 
is, we set to work to hunt for texts all through the 
Bible in support of some doctrine on which we are 
going to preach— we are not only very apt to make 
a wrong application of them, but we lose a great 
deal of interesting and valuable instruction. We 
lose all that comes to us from observing how dif- 
ferent minds, under the inspiration and guidance of 
the same Spirit, looked at, felt, taught the same 
truths. Thus, for instance, St. John only reveals to 
us Christ as "the Word of God." St. John only 
gives the name Paraclete to the Son and the Spirit. 
St. Paul's doctrine of the righteousness which is by 
faith is in its form and development peculiar. to him- 
self. St. James speaks of faith, St. John of righteous- 
ness, in terms very unlike those of St. Paul. The 
Epistle to the Hebrews gives us a view of the Person 
and the work of Christ in relation to the types of 
the Old Testament, to which we have nothing parallel 
in the Gospels or Epistles. I do not say that these 



234 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

views of truth are contradictory or even divergent. 
I do say that they supplement one another. And I 
do say that the more we recognise the diversity in 
the unity in the apostolic writings, the better pre- 
pared we shall be to give it a charitable and hearty 
recognition in all teachers of the Church from the 
times of the Apostles to our own. 

IV. Need I add that the Scriptures must be studied 
in the original tongues, if we are to make the use of 
them which we ought to make in our preparation 
for the pulpit ? And here permit me to express my 
regret that the study of Hebrew is so much neglected 
in England. I wish it were made a part of the cur- 
riculum in our public schools. I believe the study 
would be most valuable, even apart from its bearing 
on theology. The man who only knows the western 
tongues can hardly be said to know language. One 
mode of it, one form of it as a vehicle of expression 
so peculiar as that of the Semitic dialects, has been 
wholly and undeservedly neglected. To every scholar 
there must be a distinct gain in some familiarity with 
the Semitic syntax and vocabulary. But for the 
student of the Old Testament Scriptures such know- 
ledge is indispensable. Every one is aware, even if 
he be conscious that he is not a master of Greek, 
with how much more freedom and satisfaction his 
knowledge of the original enables him to handle a 
commentary on the New Testament. He feels that 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 235 

he can, to some extent, use his own judgment But 
in the Old Testament, on the contrary, he is at the 
mercy of the commentator ; and if he attempt to 
compare commentators, he will either be driven to 
despair, or he will eagerly catch at the interpretation 
which jumps with his fancy or his prejudices, or 
which seems to give him the best handle for a 
sermon. 

It is really sad to think of the havoc wrought in 
the pulpit with texts through a want of this know- 
ledge. Some part of the mischief may be remedied, 
let us hope, by the revision of the English Version. 
But I cannot pretend to claim infallibility for the 
revisers, and I do not suppose that even their labours 
will render this kind of study very much less neces- 
sary than before. There are subtle shades of mean- 
ing, links of connection, trains of thought, which no 
translator can wholly give. The best translation 
must always leave room enough for the commentator. 
That I venture to believe no member of the Revision 
Companies would dispute. Therefore even the new 
and Revised Version will not supersede the study of 
the Bible in the original tongues, though, as Bishop 
Thirlwall remarked in a speech in Convocation, it 
may rob clergymen and dissenting ministers of some 
of their favourite texts. Meanwhile, we may at least 
be on our guard against flagrant mistranslations, and 
against the use of passages which are certainly no 



236 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

part of the original text. No one ought now to 
appeal to the famous passage in Haggai as proving 
that the Messiah is "the desire of all nations," as the 
rendering is due entirely to the Vulgate, and the 
most orthodox of Hebraists have long since aban- 
doned it; or to the English version of Heb. ii. 16, 
" He taketh not on Him the nature of angels, but He 
taketh on Him the seed of Abraham," in support of 
the doctrine of the Incarnation ; the true rendering 
being, " He succoureth not angels, but He succoureth 
the seed," etc. No one ought to forget how much 
may be said on the authority, not of modern critics, 
but of the ancient versions, against the reading in 
Psalm ii., " Kiss ye the Son ; " or how entirely in the 
well-known passage, Job xix., the rendering of our 
translators, " Though worms destroy this body," gives 
a colouring to the sense which is wholly wanting in 
the original. On the other hand, how great would be 
the gain — far more than compensating, surely, for such 
a loss — if the true rendering of Isaiah ix. I. were 
given to the Church, and if that prophecy, now so 
hopelessly unintelligible to our congregations who 
hear it read on Christmas Day, were made to appear 
in its wonderful beauty and grandeur ! " They shall 
pass through the land," it is said, in gloom and 
perplexity. " But," cries the prophet, " the darkness 
is driven away. For there shall be no more gloom 
where there was vexation ; as in the former time He 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 237 

made light of the land of Zebulun and then Naphtali, 
so in the latter time He hath made it glorious, by 
the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, the circuit of the 
nations. The people that sat in darkness have seen 
a great light," etc. Even the italics of the ancient 
version are not always a safeguard. A very cele- 
brated preacher, in a sermon on Psalm xxvii., "When 
thou saidst, Seek ye my face," made one of the points 
of his sermon turn on the words " When thou saidst," 
commenting on them as marking the readiness and 
earnestness of the speaker — " then immediately with- 
out any delay " (such was his paraphrase), though 
those words are not in the Hebrew, and are written 
in italics in the English Version. 

I know that the study on which I have been 
insisting is one that requires very serious labour. Of 
all books in the world, the Bible is one which will 
not yield up its riches and its sweetness except to 
the diligent and faithful and earnest student. All 
great works demand long and patient and persevering 
study. The lesser mind cannot expect to grasp at 
once the purpose of the greater. Sir J. Reynolds 
tells us of the profound disappointment with which 
he first beheld Raphael's great picture of the Trans- 
figuration at the Vatican. It was only as he came 
again and again, only as he lingered over it and 
dwelt upon it till the picture took possession of him, 
that he at last perceived its grandeur and its har- 



238 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

mony. It is the same with music or with sculpture, 
or with the finest masterpieces of literature. Much 
more must it be true of the thoughts of God, that 
they are not to be grasped lightly by us. The 
great discoverers in God's revelation of Himself in 
nature have been men of humble mind, and of self- 
denying, unwearied labour. The knowledge they 
have gathered, and by which they have enriched the 
world, has been the fruit of patient research. It 
must be the same in the study of God's other great 
revelation of Himself in the written Word. What 
mines of wealth are hidden there ! How inexhaus- 
tible is the fulness thereof! A man may give a 
long lifetime to the study, and yet feel how far he 
is from having mastered the volume. There will 
always be some new light, some fresh and surprising 
discovery. It is said that on one occasion when a 
number of wits among the French Encyclopedists 
were conversing, the question having been proposed, 
what book each would choose to take with him into 
prison or exile, if his choice were restricted to one, 
all exclaimed, "The Bible." I do not know on what 
authority the story rests, though I have seen it 
recently quoted by a French writer. But 

" Se non e vero, e ben trovato." 

For certainly no one volume contains so much food 
for thought on the highest subjects, none embraces 



Lect. IX.] STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 239 

such a varied literature, or more splendid specimens 
of literary skill, none has so sounded the deeps of 
the human heart, or brought God so near to man. 

Moreover, as I believe that the Spirit of God ever 
dwells in His Church to enlighten and sanctify it, 
and to guide it into all the truth, I believe that the 
Church is not only the witness to, and the guardian 
of, the written Word, but that she is the interpreter 
of the written Word. I believe, therefore, that she 
is abdicating her high and indisputable office, and 
casting away her gifts, and denying her vocation, 
when she thinks herself bound to adopt nothing 
but past interpretations of the Bible. This is to 
impoverish and drain her spiritual life. What means 
the experience of past ages, what the gathered 
wisdom of those who have gone before, if having 
all this we are to fold it in a napkin and lie down 
to sleep, instead of trading with it to profitable 
purpose ? 

I most entirely- and thankfully agree with what 
the Archbishop of Canterbury said in the second of 
his seven weighty Addresses which he delivered to 
the clergy at his second visitation — that what we 
want is not so much a new school of theology, as 
one that will found all its teaching on the Holy 
Scriptures. " I think," he says, " there will be this 
difference between such a school and those which 
preceded it, that it will be more jealous than that 



240 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. IX. 

which went before it of any human additions to the 
Word of God ; that it will be very careful not to 
exalt any human authority, even the most venerable 
(however important it may be to pay due attention 
to such authority in its proper place), to an equal 
rank with the revelation of God." And he goes on 
to say that he believes " that we have, powerful for 
good, working for good, amongst our rising clergy, 
this very system that some say we want as a 
novelty." * God grant that this belief may prove 
to be well founded ! 

More and more am I convinced that the great 
work of the Reformation is yet in germ. It was the 
commanding merit of the Reformers that they not 
only gave the people the Scriptures in their own 
tongue wherein they were born, but that they also 
taught them to read the Scriptures in newness of 
spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. A new 
era of Biblical interpretation begins with them. We 
feel as we listen especially to men like Luther and 
Calvin that they are men who are not merely busy 
with texts for controversy, though no doubt they did 
not escape the tendency of their age and of the ages 
that preceded them, but that they did enter into and 
sympathise with the life and the history of the Scrip- 
tures till the characters of the Bible became living 

* u Some Thoughts on the Duties of the Established Church 
of England," pp. 24, 25. 



Lect. IX.] STUbY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 241 

and present, and the words of the Bible became 
living words, " words with hands and feet," to use 
Luther's expression, which changed and regenerated 
a world. The same mighty instrument is put into 
our hands. May we learn to use it aright. May He 
who of old time taught His servants by the sending 
to them the light of his Holy Spirit grant us by the 
same Spirit to read aright and to divide aright His 
word of truth. May He draw us away from wretched 
strifes about the ceremonials of divine service to the 
study of His Word. There we shall find the true 
Eirenicon. Many questions which now look large 
will sink into their proper insignificance. A healthier 
tone will be seen in our theology, a larger charity in 
our teaching, a surer and a more enlightened faith in 
ourselves and in those who hear us. 



mrtr ||thapIuation. 

BY THE VENERABLE THOMAS THOMASON PEROWNE, B.D., 
ARCHDEACON OF NORWICH, EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO 
THE BISHOP OF NORWICH, AND RECTOR OF REDENHALL 
NORFOLK. 



X. 

TEXTS: THEIR INTERPRETATION, MISINTER- 
PRETATION, AND MISAPPLICATION 

I HAVE to treat, if I rightly understand the title 
of my paper, of a particular branch of a wide and 
general subject. I am not called to discuss the broad 
question of the interpretation of Holy Scripture, nor 
even that of the interpretation of Scripture texts 
under its more general aspects. The line laid down 
for me is more precise and definite. I am asked to 
consider the interpretation of Scripture texts in the 
light of the most common errors of misinterpretation 
and misapplication ; and to point out how such 
errors may best be avoided. 

Speaking as a worker in this field of labour to my 
fellow-workers, I am to endeavour to offer for their 
consideration some hints and suggestions, some helps 
and safeguards which shall conduce to the more 
accurate and profitable interpretation of texts of 
Holy Scripture. 

Regarding this, then, as my subject, there are three 
canons of interpretation which without further preface 
I will venture to lay down. 



246 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X. 

I. The first is, In interpreting a text, seek to ascer- 
tain the exact and proper meaning of the words in 
which it is couched. 

A rule like this might seem to be superfluous, and 
yet experience proves that it is not so. An inter- 
pretation is sometimes put upon a text by a preacher, 
which the English words, apart from any reference 
to the original, on careful consideration will not bear. 
A thoughtful and intelligent hearer — and some such 
there are in almost every congregation, and it should 
be our aim as preachers to minister to their thought- 
fulness and intelligence, and to add to their number — 
will find himself asking, " Can this really be the 
meaning of the text ? I know nothing of Greek or 
Hebrew, but as it stands in my English Bible I do 
not see how this can be got out of it/' Our very 
familiarity with the Bible may prove a snare to us 
in this respect. Its words and phrases which we 
have known from childhood are stereotyped in our 
memories, and sometimes in the inexact form which 
popular tradition has given them. There are such 
things as conventional readings, as well as conven- 
tional interpretations of texts : readings which are 
inaccurate representations of our English version, but 
which have become so familiar to him by frequent 
repetition, that the preacher is in danger of uncon- 
sciously regarding them as the ipsissima verba of 
his text. How frequently, for example, do we hear 



Lect. X.] TEXTS. 247 

what I venture to think a wrong turn given to the 
exhortation of St. Paul to the Colossians, " Set your 
affection on things above " ! * How often is that text 
quoted, "Set your affections on things above"! Even 
in a work of so accomplished a scholar as the present 
Lord Selborne, " The Book of Praise," doubtless per 
incuriam, possibly by a printer's error, the mistake 
occurs.f The difference is only that of a single letter, 
affections for affection, the plural for the singular ; 
but it alters perceptibly, and I think injuriously, the 
meaning of the phrase. It is not of the affections 
or passions, but of the mind and thought and dispo- 
sition of a Christian, that the Apostle is here really 
speaking. Twice, and twice only, I believe, the word 
affections occurs in the plural in the English New 
Testament, and both times in the writings of St. 
Paul. To the Romans he says, speaking of the 
heathen world, " God gave them up to vile affections," 
and there the Greek word is iraQy) % % To the Gala- 
tians he writes, "They that are Christ's have crucified 
the flesh, with the affections and lusts," and there 
it is iraOrjixara.^ But in the passage before us it is 
quite another word that is used. What St. Paul here 
says is ra avco (frpovelre, " Set your affection," or as it is 

* Colossians iii. 2. 

t In the list of contents. " Part IV. ' Songs of the Heart.' 
V. ' Hope.' * Set your affections,' etc. 

X els nddq ari^ias. Rom. i. 26. § Gal. V. 24. 



248 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X. 

in the margin, your " mind," on things above. Affect 
them, let your disposition be towards them. The 
state of mind recommended is the exact opposite, 
as a glance at the Greek makes evident, of that 
condemned by the same writer when he speaks to 
the Philippians of those who " mind earthly things."* 
It is not here the translation that is in fault, but 
the interpretation which is inaccurately put upon it. 
"Set your affection" represents sufficiently St. Paul's 
words. It means, as I have said, affect heavenly 
things — be heavenly-minded ; or as Bishop Lightfoot 
paraphrases the exhortation, " You must not only 
seek heaven ; you must also think heaven." Similarly 
in the Litany we pray for grace to receive God's word 
with a pure affection " — i.e., with a mind free from 
prejudice, purely affected, rightly disposed towards it. 
How often, again, are the words of the Psalmist, 
"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy 
name give glory/' employed as an ascription of praise, 
not only in the Non nobis, Domine, of the musician, but 
in the more sober discourse of the preacher ! Not 
uncommonly, too, a word is changed in the quotation, 
the memory aiding and abetting by its inaccuracy 
the misconception of the mind : " Not unto us, O 
Lord," so it runs, "be (instead of 'give') the praise." 
Whereas, in the Psalmist's use of them, the words are 
an earnest prayer for help, and that prayer urged not 

* oi tcl iniyeia (frpovovvres. Phil. iii. 1 9. 



Lect. X.] TEXTS 249 

on the plea of our merit, but of God's mere mercy 
and of the honour of His name. 

u Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy 
name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth's 
sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is 
now their God ? * (Ps. cxv. 1, 2). 

Or, to take but one other example, how may a 
preacher sometimes be misled by the familiar sound 
of a word or phrase, to which a particular meaning 
commonly attaches in the New Testament, but which 
in the text in question is used in another and perhaps 
its own more strict and proper meaning ! For in- 
stance, in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, and the second verse, we read, in the 
course of a comparison between the Jews of old and 
ourselves as Christians, " For unto us was the gospel 
preached, as well as unto them." Now, it is easily 
conceivable that a preacher, caught by the familiar 
ring of the phrase " the gospel preached," might set 
himself to discourse from this text upon the Messianic 
character of the Old Testament, the Gospel in type 
and prophecy and promise under the Law. And yet 
the very form of the expression, "unto us as well as 
unto them/' which if that had been the meaning 
would surely have been inverted, " unto them as 
well as unto us," might suggest another and a truer 
interpretation. And a reference to the context and 
to the whole argument (commencing with iii. 7) in 



250 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X . 

which the words occur, makes it quite clear that the 
phrase " the gospel was preached " is here used, not 
in its technical sense of the good tidings of great joy, 
the message of salvation through Jesus Christ our 
Lord, but in its earlier and more proper sense of a 
proclamation of good news or joyful tidings ; and 
that the subject-matter of that proclamation is not 
the gospel as we generally understand it, but the rest 
— to them of Canaan, to us of heaven— of which the 
writer is here treating. Thus understood, the order 
of the words, "unto us as well as unto them," is 
accurate and intelligible. That good tidings of a 
rest, the rest of Canaan, had been preached to the 
Jews of old time, is the admitted basis of the whole 
argument ; that the gospel in that sense had been 
preached to them was beyond a doubt. But the 
writers object is to show that Christian Jews, and 
Christians generally, are now in a similar position ; 
that unto us, as well as unto them, good tidings of a 
rest have been proclaimed. The rest of the Sabbath 
was from the creation, the rest of Canaan from the 
times of Joshua ; but of neither of these, for they 
were things in the long past, did the Holy Ghost 
by David speak in the ninety-fifth Psalm: "There 
remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." 
Unto us as unto them have the good tidings of a rest 
been made known. Let us therefore labour, let us 
therefore strive to enter into that rest. 



Lect. X.] TEXTS. 251 

The importance of consulting the original as a 
means of ensuring verbal accuracy of interpretation is 
now so generally recognized, and has been so often 
urged, that I need hardly insist upon it. One brief 
illustration of it, as bearing on our present point of 
verbal accuracy of interpretation, it may suffice to 
give. One of the most familiar, and certainly not the 
least important, of the rules by which the ministers 
of Christ are wont to guide themselves in their 
teaching, is that saying of St. Paul's, " I determined 
to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and 
Him crucified/' But let us read these words in the 
Greek in which St. Paul wrote them — ov yap eicpiva 
elhevai ri ev v/jllv el fir) ^Iqarovv XpccrTov /cat tovtov 
icrravpcofievov : " I did not resolve," that is, " to 
know anything else; that was the only thing that 
I made it my business to know," — and do we not 
perceive at once how, without losing definiteness, 
the Apostle's decision gains breadth ; how room is left 
for other things to come in incidentally, and to take 
their place in subservience to the one great aim of 
the preacher ? If I further refer for a moment, under 
this head, to the well-known verse, " The Lord gave 
the word, great was the company of the preachers," * 
it is not so much because I suppose that we are 
likely now-a-days to speak of the " preachers " — 
women, as the feminine in the Hebrew shows them 
* Ps. lxviii. 1 1 — Prayer Book version. 



252 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X. 

to be — as the heralds of salvation, as because I should 
like to draw attention in passing to the version of 
Tate and Brady, happy alike in critical accuracy and 
poetical diction : 

" Thou gav'st the word, we sallied forth, 
And in that powerful word o'ercame ; 
While virgin troops, with songs of mirth, 
In state our conquest did proclaim." 

And this careful attention to the exact meaning of 
the words which my first canon requires will ensure 
the right application of a text, no less certainly than 
its right interpretation. I confess, for instance, that 
the use which is sometimes made of St. Paul's well- 
known words to the Corinthians in support of the 
weekly offertory, has never commended itself to 
my judgment as a legitimate application of them. 
Whether the weekly offertory be desirable or no, I 
do not see how the practice of it can reasonably be 
founded on the passage in question. The advice of 
the Apostle to the Christians of Corinth was, that, 
with reference to a collection which they were to 
make for the poor saints at Jerusalem, each of them 
should, on the first day of every week during the 
interval between their receipt of his letter and his 
promised visit to them, lay by him in store such a 
sum of money as his success in trade or material 
prosperity from other causes enabled him to part 
with. The aggregate of the sums so stored up would 



Lect. X.] TEXTS 253 

thus be ready at hand for each individual to offer to 
St. Paul when he arrived among them, and so there 
would be no gatherings when he came. " His time," 
as Dean Alford explains it, " would then be better 
employed in imparting to them a spiritual benefit, 
than in urging them to and superintending this duty." 
But what has this to do with the weekly offertory, 
either in principle or in practice ? Laying up in 
store by myself is not putting into a bag or basin at 
church ; I cannot tell week by week — very few of us 
can — how God has prospered me in my business or 
profession. It is not the avowed object of the weekly 
offertory to set the minister free from serving tables. 
The text will not bear the application made of it. 
Where the practice of weekly offertory is thought 
desirable, by all means let it be maintained; but let 
it rest on a better foundation than this. 

Equally difficult do I find it to understand how 
the words of St. James, so often quoted in defence of 
free and open churches, can be properly applied to 
that subject. Even if they refer to assemblies for 
worship at all — and it is not easy to say what " sitting 
under the footstool " means if they do — at most they 
can only be held to condemn misappropriation, and 
are quite silent as to the evil of any appropriation 
whatever. 

II. A second canon of interpretation, which indeed 
I have already in some measure forestalled in my 



254 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X. 

discussion of the first, is this : Study the relation 
of the text which you are interpreting to the context 
in which it occurs. 

Under this head there is a general, but not 
irrelevant remark, which I desire at the outset to 
make. The multiplication of commentaries and 
works designed to explain and illustrate Holy 
Scripture is amongst the hopeful signs of religious 
life and activity in our day. But it is not an 
unmixed good. The temptation under which the 
preacher lies to take his view of a text at second 
hand is by virtue of it greatly increased. The com- 
mentary practical and exegetical, the sermon able 
and interesting of some leading divine, is so easy of 
access, so ready to hand : it requires an effort of 
will to take up his Bible first ; to begin by studying 
the text on which he proposes to preach, and the 
context in which it stands ; to think for himself 
before he consults the thoughts of others ; to kneel 
alone and listen to God's voice as he cries, " Speak, 
Lord, for Thy servant heareth." And yet on this 
independent study of the Word of God, not by 
any means as excluding, but as preceding and 
preparing for the study of commentaries upon it, 
how much of freshness, how much of power, how 
much of reality, how much of ownership in our 
sermons depends ! And this brings me to my 
second canon of interpretation. An intelligent 



Lect. X.] TEXTS 255 

acquaintance with the context, a firm grasp of the 
argument as a whole, is a weapon which no 
expositor of Scripture texts can afford to dispense 
with. Take, for example, the familiar text, "The 
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from 
all sin." Standing alone, what a gospel does it 
contain ! How many a wounded conscience has 
it healed ! How many a burdened- spirit has it 
relieved ! God forbid that we should deny its effi- 
cacy or dim its lustre as an independent truth. 
And yet, ought a preacher ever to forget that these 
words do not stand alone — that there is a condition 
attached to the comforting appropriation of this 
great truth — that the complete sentence runs, r< If 
we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin " ? By 
remembering this, will he not be preserved from 
the danger — not, I fear, altogether an imaginary 
one — of obscuring the severer side of the gospel 
message; of keeping back one half of that whole 
counsel of God which includes repentance towards 
God, as well as faith towards our Lord Jesus 
Christ ; of omitting to declare the conditions on 
which the gracious assurances of the gospel may 
be appropriated ? And will he not really secure 
to his text much of its power to comfort a 
troubled conscience ? " If we walk in the light," 



256 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Ltxt. X. 

so the condition runs ; but the following context 
. clearly shows that the first discovery which that 
light will make to us is of our own sinfulness ; that 
the first error from which it will emancipate us is 
the false dream of night and darkness that we 
have no sin ; the first deed of day to which it will 
awaken us is to confess our sins. He, then, who 
knows his sins,, and is troubled for them, has already 
emerged out of darkness ; he has already taken the 
first step in walking in the light. To him, there- 
fore, the truth belongs in its first application — " the 
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." Let 
him continue to walk in the light, and the cleansing 
process shall be continually renewed.* And this 
rule of contextual accuracy, if it be observed, will 
sometimes yield us, if I mistake not, a new and 
valuable application of a text, without necessarily 
robbing us of its older and more familiar application. 
Take, for example, those comfortable words of our 
Saviour Christ, with which our Church, in her 
Communion office, seals by the Master's own voice 
the sentence of absolution, which has just been 
pronounced with His authority by the servant : 
<: Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest." Who of us could 
ever dissociate, who would ever wish to do so if 

* 1 John i. 7 — 10. The verb is in the present tense, denoting 
the continued action, corresponding to the daily need : KaSapifa. 



Lect. X.] TEXTS. 257 

he could, those words from the burden of sin and 
the rest which Christ alone can give from it ? Yet 
a study of the whole chapter, which forms one 
connected argument throughout, shows clearly that 
that is not their first and most proper reference. It 
is of doubt and unbelief, suggested by the wavering 
faith of John the Baptist, and by his question, " Art 
thou He that should come, or do we look for 
another ? " that our Lord is here directly speaking. 
It is to that burden, the burden of him who would 
believe, but feels that he cannot, the burden of 
failing faith, of unwilling doubt, that our Lord 
here directly refers. " No one," He has just said, 
" knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom 
the Son willeth to reveal Him." Would you then 
know the Father ? and do you feel that to that 
high knowledge you are unequal to attain ? Then 
come to Me, and I will reveal Him to you. For 
that burden of your inability to believe take another 
in exchange, "My yoke" — the yoke of meekness 
and humility (for I am meek and lowly in heart), 
the yoke of teachableness and submission. And so 
in humble faith, in the blessed refuge of that quiet 
acquiescence, " Even so, Father, for so it seemed 
good in Thy sight," you shall find rest unto your soul. 
Who does not thank God in these days of doubt, 
for his own sake, and for the sake of others, for 
such an application of the text as this ? And yet 

17 



258 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X. 

it is to a study of the context that we are indebted 
for it. And in gaining it we part with nothing ; 
for the wide terms of the invitation and the wide 
consequences of sin alike justify us in applying our 
Saviours words to sin itself, and to every form of evil 
to which the teeming womb of sin has given birth. 

The example with which I have just dealt may 
serve to remind us that, though we should always 
seek to ascertain the meaning of a text by a reference 
to the context, it by no means follows that we are to 
limit its use and application by such reference. The 
inspired writer may be employing a general principle 
in dealing with a particular case. It is obviously 
lawful for us to apply the general principle to other 
cases on which it legitimately bears. This is what 
we commonly do with the sayings of all great men. 
A great mind recognises the general law in the 
special example, and is led by it to enunciate truths 
or principles of the widest application, which become 
the treasured aphorisms of every age and country. 
So it is with the writers of the Bible. Indeed, we 
are warranted in making a freer use of Holy Scrip- 
ture in this respect than of mere human writings, and 
that for a reason which Lord Bacon has well given 
in the following passage, quoted by Dean Goulburn 
in his republished work on "The Inspiration and 
Study of the Holy Scriptures." * 

* P. 1 08, edition of 1878. 



Lect. X.] TEXTS 259 

"It is an excellent observation which hath been 
made upon the answers of our Saviour Christ to 
many of the questions which were propounded to 
Him, how that they are impertinent to the state of 
the question demanded : the reason whereof is, be- 
cause not being like man, which knows man's thoughts 
by his words, but knowing man's thoughts imme- 
diately, He never answered their words, but their 
thoughts ; much in the like manner it is with the 
Scriptures, which being written to the thoughts of 
men, and to the succession of all ages, with a fore- 
sight of all heresies, contradictions, differing estates 
of the Church, yea, and particularly of the elect, are 
not to be interpreted only (he does not say ' not at 
all/ or ' not first and chiefly,') according to the lati- 
tude of the proper sense of the place, and respec- 
tively towards that present occasion whereupon the 
words were uttered ; or in precise congruity or con- 
texture with the words before or after ; or in contem- 
plation of the principal scope of the place ; but have 
in themselves, not only totally or collectively, but 
distributively in clauses and words, infinite springs 
and streams of doctrine to water the Church in every 
part." 

III. It is with reference partly to this wider range of 
interpretation and application, but also to all inter- 
pretation and application, that my remaining canon 
is framed. Whether, having first ascertained the 



260 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X. 

meaning of the words and the bearing of the con- 
text, you proceed to deal with the text as it standi 
or whether, grasping the principle which underlies it, 
you unstring the pearl, and drop the thread on which 
it hung, in either case I would say, Consider the rela- 
tion of any text which you would interpret or apply to 
revealed truth as a whole. 

That such relation exists is beyond a doubt. It 
exists for all truth, to whatever relating, and however 
acquired. It exists for that great harmonious body of 
divinely revealed truth, which our Lord describes as 
" the whole truth." It is of this connection between 
a single truth, however perfect and independent 
in itself it may seem to be, and the whole body 
of truth on which it really rests, and apart from 
which it cannot be maintained, that Luther in his 
" Table Talk " says : " The school theologians have a 
fine similitude thereupon, that it is as with a sphere 
or globe lying upon a table, which touches it only 
with one point, yet it is the whole table which 
supports the globe/' 

It is hardly possible to overrate the importance of 
this canon in interpreting and applying Scripture 
texts. How many errors and heresies, how many 
partial or exaggerated representations of truth have 
been due, not so much to mistaking the language 
or neglecting the context of particular texts, as to 
insisting upon them exclusively, or giving them a 



Lect. X.] TEXTS. 261 

prominence which was out of keeping with the 
analogy or proportion of the faith ! On the other 
hand, what an interesting volume might be written of 
instances in which texts of Holy Scripture misunder- 
stood or misapplied, as regards the meaning of the 
words or the bearing of the context, bnt in which an 
eye spiritually enlightened, and a heart warm with 
heavenly love, saw Christ and the things of Christ, 
have converted a sinner or comforted a saint, or 
smoothed a dying pillow! We may smile at such 
quaint conceits as that of the learned and pious Dean 
of St. Paul's, Dr. Donne, who on his appointment as 
vicar of St. Dunstan's, in the year 1624, took for his 
first text the words, " If brethren dwell together, and 
one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the 
dead shall not marry without, unto a stranger: her 
husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her 
to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's 
brother unto her ; "* and proceeded in the discourse 
which he founded upon it to represent himself, as a 
duly ordained minister, to be the lawful brother of 
the deceased pastor of that now widowed church, 
and in succeeding to the vicarage to be doing the 
part of a husband's brother by marrying the widow, 
in the hope of begetting souls and raising up spiritual 
children to him. But we cannot fail to recognize 
beneath this fanciful garb the earnestness, the piety, 
* Deut . xxv. 5. 



262 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X. 

the appreciation of the true position and office of 
a minister of Christ, which breathe throughout the 
sermon. We may feel inclined to be amused at that 
passage in the colloquy between the two pilgrims, in 
which, with reference to their friend Talkative, Faith- 
ful says to his brother Christian, "This brings to my 
mind that of Moses, by which he describeth the beast 
that is clean. He is such an one that parteth the 
hoof and cheweth the cud ; not that parteth the hoof 
only, or that cheweth the cud only. The hare 
cheweth the cud, but yet is unclean, because he 
parteth not the hoof. And this truly resembleth 
Talkative : he cheweth the cud, he seeketh know- 
ledge, he cheweth upon the word ; but he divideth 
not the hoof, he parteth not with the way of sinners ; 
but as the hare, he retaineth the foot of a dog or 
bear, and therefore is unclean ; " to which Christian 
replies, " You have spoken, for aught I know, the 
true gospel sense of those texts." 

But, however we may demur to that being the 
gospel sense of the texts, or to their having any 
gospel sense at all, we must readily admit that it is 
gospel doctrine that is set forth. I am not defending 
such fanciful interpretations of Scripture as these ; 
on the contrary, I earnestly deprecate them. In our 
own day they are specially likely to be injurious. 
But I do say, Better a thousand times a text in- 
accurately understood or fancifully applied, but yet 



Lect. X.] TEXTS, 263 

used to teach or enforce the truth of God, than a 
text explained with all the nice grammatical and 
critical acumen of some modern rationalist, and then 
perverted to the support of error, or evacuated of all 
spiritual life and significance. It is the combination 
of the two that I desire to urge, and that I believe 
to be the special need of our day. To that, my three 
canons are a humble contribution. Let us endeavour, 
in our interpretation and application of God's Word, 
to be verbally accurate, contextually accurate, theolo- 
gically accurate; and then, through His help without 
whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy, we shall not 
interpret and apply in vain. 



Iprtfp^tr in its Illation to ^xtudpiiQ. 

BY THE VERY REVEREND WILLIAM ROBERT FREMANTLE, 
D.D., DEAN OF RIPON. 



XL 

PROPHECY IN ITS RELATION TO PREACHING. 

MY object in this paper is not to enter upon 
the wide field of prophetic study, or to dis- 
cuss the different schools of prophetic interpretation, 
but to offer a few considerations upon the relation 
which the interpretation of prophecy bears to pulpit 
ministrations. 

If we are to preach according to the proportion 
of faith, or, in other words, to give to every part 
of Holy Scripture its due place and share in our 
teaching, prophecy will undoubtedly claim a greater 
prominence than is usually given to it. Take, for 
example, the threefold classification of the Old 
Testament into the Law, the Prophets, and the 
Psalms; and if we separate what may be called 
moral teaching from distinct predictions, we shall 
find that nearly, if not quite, one-third of the Old 
Testament contains prophetic utterances of future 
events; and these are not confined to the books of 
the Prophets properly so called, but extend to the 
books of Moses and to the Psalms. The same re- 



268 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XI. 

mark will apply almost to the same extent to the 
New Testament. If, then, it appertains to our office 
to be expositors of Gods Word, we cannot neglect 
so large a portion of it without loss to ourselves 
and to our congregations. But there is another 
reason which should have still greater weight with 
us, and that is, that prophecy is one of the chief 
evidences of Christianity, and this not exclusively 
upon the ground that we can prove that certain 
prophecies have been fulfilled, but because the 
whole history of prophecy, both before and after 
its fulfilment, proves its Divine origin, and it is 
now, as it has always been, a light shining in a 
dark place, pointing out the will of God in the 
future as well as the will of God in the past ; 
for history unfulfilled is prophecy, and prophecy 
fulfilled is history. In this way Gurtler, the learned 
German Professor, who lived about two hundred 
years ago, expresses the same thought in his " Sys- 
tema Theologiae." " Scripturarum propheticarum 
diligens meditatio necessaria est quia — (i) Sunt 
pars verbi Dei (Col. iii. 16). (2) Sedulo nobis 
commendantur a Paulo (1 Thess. v. 20), et a Petro 
(2 Peter i. 10). (3) Conciliant providentiam in tem- 
poribus periculosis, confirmant fidein, provocant 
preces, excitant spem, suadent patientiam, afferunt 
consolationem, gignunt numinis timorem." And 
this use of prophecy becomes all the more impor- 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING 269 

tant when we test the evidence of its inspiration ; 
such, for instance, as the historical proof that it 
was uttered before the events which it foretold 
were accomplished ; secondly, that the events fore- 
told were of such a nature that no human foresight 
or experience could have conceived the probability 
or possibility of their accomplishment ; and thirdly, 
because they have been and will be accomplished 
by agencies which, so far from consciously seeking 
to bring about their fulfilment, have been opposed 
to it, and have thrown every obstacle they could 
in the way of it. But, fourthly, in His great con- 
descension and care for His people, God would not 
leave His Church in ignorance of His purposes, but 
from time to time gave them intimations of what 
He was about to do. These, and other arguments 
which might be adduced, show the use of which God 
intended prophecy, to be made, and as we find it 
was used by our Lord and His disciples in the 
New Testament. 

No less than one hundred prophecies are quoted 
in the New Testament to confirm the leading 
doctrines of the Christian religion. Again and 
again we find our Lord referring to the prophecies, 
as when He appeared to the disciples at Emmaus. 
He did not at once reveal Himself to them, but 
made His appeal to their faith in the prophets : 
" O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the 



270 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XL 

prophets have spoken ! . . . and beginning at Moses 
and all the prophets, He expounded unto them 
in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." 
In this conversation, if I understand it correctly, 
our Lord did not lay the stress of His appeal so 
much upon the fulfilment of prophecy which they 
ought to have discovered in all that had happened, 
as upon the revelation which had been made that such 
things would come to pass. And it is against this 
use of prophecy as a preparation for the coming 
events, rather than as against its actual fulfilment, 
that the attacks of sceptics have been made, and 
will be made until the end. For " there shall come 
in the last days scoffers walking after their own 
lusts and saying, " Where is the promise of His 
coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep all things 
continue as they were from the beginning of the 
creation." We admit that the interpretation of 
prophecy, whether in anticipation of the future, or 
in the exact historical and chronological fulfilment 
of the past, is a matter of difficulty ; and we must 
not be surprised if differences of opinion should 
exist, even as great and vital as those which are 
held by Jews and Christians, relating to the birth, 
life and death, and second advent of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. But this does not in any way alter 
the truth or the intent of prophecy, much less does 
it hinder the duty of humble and prayerful investi- 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING 271 

gation. Differences of interpretation arise for the 
most part from the habit of separating single texts 
of Scripture, and expounding them by themselves, 
without reference to the harmony of the entire 
prophetic word. Bishop Horsley says : " No pro- 
phecy of Scripture is made its own interpreter, or 
of self-interpretation. The Scripture prophecies 
are not detailed predictions of separate independent 
events, but are all united in a regular and entire 
system, all terminating in one great object — the 
promulgation of the gospel and the complete estab- 
lishment of Messiah's kingdom." We must not 
then imagine that we have reached the scope of a 
prophecy when we take for our Christmas-Day text 
Luke i. 31, "And, behold, thou shalt conceive in 
thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His 
name Jesus," and prove to demonstration that it 
was the fulfilment of Isaiah vii. 14, Micah v. 2, and 
the like ; but we must go on to what follows in 
verse 32 — " He shall be great, and shall be called 
the Son of the Highest : and the Lord God shall 
give unto Him the throne of His father David : 
and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for 
ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end." 
It is comparatively easy from our Christian point 
of view to show the accomplishment of all that 
relates to the Incarnation, but it requires much 
prayerful study and comparison of Scripture with 



272 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XL 

Scripture to sketch out the order of events, from 
a Jewish point of view, in the establishment of 
Christ's kingdom; and this is not only a reason- 
able and lawful course to pursue, but it has the 
authority of precedent. St. Peter tells us that the 
prophets inquired and searched diligently what 
manner of time the spirit of Christ, which was in 
them, did signify when it testified beforehand the 
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. 
And so we find Daniel (Dan. ix. 2) understood 
by books the number of the years whereof the 
word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, 
that He would accomplish seventy years in the 
desolation of Jerusalem. And St. Peter directs us to 
the more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do 
well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a 
dark place until the day dawn and the day-star 
arise in our hearts. Prophecy, then, is not a course 
of reading for the curious and the learned, but for 
the whole Church, to whom the promise of the 
Holy Ghost is given : " He shall not only bring all 
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said 
unto you, but He will show you things to come." 
And with this Divine and infallible Teacher we are 
encouraged to study the symbolic visions of the 
Apocalypse : " Blessed is he that readeth and they 
that hear the words of the prophecy of this book." 
We must not be content with the old and I hope 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING. 273 

now exploded formula that prophecy was not in- 
tended to be understood until it was fulfilled. This 
would narrow the grand revelations of the Divine 
purpose into one single result. All we should have 
to say of the prediction would be, Behold, an event 
has come to pass which God has foretold in the 
Scriptures ; but it has not previously exercised the 
faith of the Church in the Divine Word, nor had any 
influence upon the hope of the Church in anticipation 
of coming events, nor led to the study of Scripture 
as a sure guide into the future. Until the end, 
practically, the volume of the book of prophecy has 
been sealed up, and its sharp, clear outlines have 
been enveloped in darkness, like the chart of a terra 
incognita or of an unexplored region. But this 
manifestly was not the purpose for which Enoch 
prophesied, or Noah warned the ungodly world, or 
Jonah preached to Nineveh, or Zechariah and Haggai 
encouraged the builders of the Temple, or the Lord 
Jesus with tears foretold the desolation of Jerusalem. 
Prophecy has been and is the finger of God pointing 
onward to the events of history, mapping out God's 
gracious purposes, and giving substance and reality 
and intensity to the dispensations of Providence. As 
' the star led the Magi to Bethlehem, so the spirit 
of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus in all the 
events connected with His first and second advent. 
History assumes a new aspect read in the light 

18 



274 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XI. 

prophecy, and whether it be the future of Moab, or 
Ammon, or Damascus, of Tyre and Sidon, of Nineveh, 
of Babylon, of Jerusalem, of Persia, Greece, or Rome; 
and whatever remains to be accomplished in the ten 
kingdoms of the beast, the Apocalyptic Babylon, the 
man of sin, or the woes of the Euphrates, the hopes 
of the Church will be sustained by the words of her 
Lord — " Behold, I told you, that when the time shall 
come, ye may remember that I told you of them. 
Behold, I have told you before!' (Matt. xxiv. 25.) 

Nor is this all. The teaching of our Lord con- 
tained nearly as much of prediction as it did of 
exposition of the fulfilment of Scripture ; and if any 
one, even the least of His prophecies, had failed, His 
whole claim to be a Divine Teacher might justly 
have been questioned. We must bear in mind that 
if minute details of ancient prophecy were fulfilled 
by our Lord during His life and ministry at almost 
every step, even to the " I thirst " upon the cross, 
so did He as minutely from time to time forewarn 
His disciples as to what would happen to Him and 
to them before as well as after His ascension into 
heaven. When, for example, He foretold the fall of 
Peter and the crowing of the cock, the betrayal of 
Judas and the dipping of the sop, the preparation for 
the passover, the man carrying a pitcher of water, 
the loosing the colt, the journey to Bethany to raise 
Lazarus from the dead, and the like, these were so 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING. 275 

marked and definite, that His Divine knowledge was 
continually brought to the test of actual experience. 

Again, when He foretold His persecution, and 
sufferings, and death, and resurrection, each detail 
was specified in such a way that a single failure would 
have thrown discredit upon His testimony. Who 
can conceive a more accurate and precise description 
of coming events than the words of Christ (Matt. 
xx. 18, 19) : "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the 
Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests 
and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him 
to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles, to 
mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him, and the 
third day He shall rise again"? Or what can be 
more plain and unmistakably evident than the pre- 
dictions of the destruction of Jerusalem : " The days 
will come, in the which there shall not be left one 
stone upon another, which shall not be cast down " 
(Luke xxi. 6, 24), " and they shall fall by the edge 
of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all 
nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the 
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled " ? 
Who will draw the line, and say that the prophecies 
of Christ were fulfilled in His own Person, but that 
all that relates to the future must remain sealed up 
until the events come to pass ? But we must bear 
in mind that when our Lord delivered the prophecies, 
all was future, both as regarded Himself, and what 



276 H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XL 

relates to the Jews, the Church, and the world after 
His ascension into heaven. And if the promise of 
the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost was made 
to be a test of the faith and obedience of the Church 
during those ten days of watting and -prayer, is it 
too much to say that the promises which remain to 
us of the spread of the gospel, the conversion of the 
Jews, the tribulation of the latter days, and the 
glorious advent of the Lord Jesus, are intended to 
keep alive, to strengthen, and to comfort the Church 
during the longer period of our looking and longing 
for His return ? All we can say is, the mode and 
manner of the fulfilment of the past is a pledge and 
index to the fulfilment of the future. 

And here, as space would fail me further to 
pursue the subject of prophetical exegesis, I venture 
to suggest a few rules w r ith respect to the treatment 
of prophecy in the pulpit. 

I. Let your interpretation of a passage of Scripture 
be as far as possible literal. This is Hookers rule. 
That which is nearest to the literal will always be the 
best. The facts of Old Testament history of course 
occasionally admit of allegorical and spiritual appli- 
cation, such as Sarah and Hagar in Gal. iv. repre- 
senting the two covenants ; but without Scripture 
warrant it is always hazardous to give a spiritual 
sense to events which, as far as we can judge by 
Scripture, were not intended to be types and figures 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING. 277 

of future things. This fanciful and imaginative form 
of teaching, begun probably by Origen, is fatal to 
the practical and effective exposition of prophecy. 
Let me give but one illustration, in Isaiah lxiii. 1 — 6. 
This is a passage of Scripture so suggestive of the 
sufferings of Christ, that it has been chosen as the 
text again and again for a Good Friday sermon, 
and is selected for the Epistle of the Monday before 
Easter ; and yet, if compared with the first three 
verses of Isaiah lxi., no one can fail to trace the fact 
that the one describes the acceptable year of the 
Lord, and the other the day of vengeance : the 
one His first, the other His second advent. The 
appearance of the Redeemer in red apparel agrees 
with the description of Him in Rev. xix. 12, 13: 
"His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head 
were many crowns, and He was clothed with a 
vesture dipped in blood : and His name is called The 
Word of God." This principle of literal interpreta- 
tion is essential to a right exposition of the Jewish 
history ; for the national, local, and temporal pro- 
mises have never been abrogated or absorbed in the 
spiritual blessings secured to the world through 
them. And here I would make two remarks :- — 

(1.) There are many predictions in the Old Testa- 
ment concerning Israel, which have purely a temporal 
and earthly termination — such as the restoration of 
the people, the reservation of the land, and the 



278 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XI. 

rebuilding of the Temple — and some of these are 
expressed in language which resembles the promises 
of spiritual blessing given in the New Testament ; 
but if the rule I have suggested be observed, there 
will be no difficulty in giving to Israel what belongs 
to Israel, and to the Church what belongs to the 
Church. There will be a Jerusalem on earth as in 
Isa. lxv., and there will be a Jerusalem coming down 
from God out of heaven as in Rev. xxi. 2. The one 
is the earthly abode of Jews, the other is the heavenly 
home of the saints of the first resurrection. The 
second remark is — 

(2.) That prophecies have a progressive develop- 
ment. We do not see the complete fulfilment at 
once. Daubuz, in his Symbolical Dictionary of 
Prophecy, says : " In the Old Testament, thus pre- 
figurative of the New, two or more incidents are 
commonly folded up in the same fact or prediction, 
so that such facts or predictions have their accom- 
plishment in a fluxion or progression ; in relation to 
each of which, when effected, it may be truly said 
that such a thing was done in order that the fact 
prefigurative of it, or the prediction foretelling it, 
might be fulfilled/' Hence it is that as in history, 
so in prophecy, we have first the blade, then the ear, 
then the full corn in the ear. There is a wonderful 
richness and fulness in the words of prophecy, which 
seem to be shooting forth their branches, which, like 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING. 279 

the banyan tree, take fresh root and rise up again to 
occupy another and a wider sphere, and so going on 
in expansion until the whole purpose of God is 
fulfilled. Thus we may find a wilful king and an 
Antichrist in Antiochus Epiphanes. We may find 
him again in the Gnostics and Ebionites of St. John's 
day, when already there were more than one Anti- 
christ ; and further still, we may find him as our 
Reformers did, and some Roman Catholic writers too, 
in the Pope of Rome and in Mahomet ; and there 
may be yet a further development of the man of 
sin in the lawless infidelity of democracy. And this 
gradual unfolding of the mysterious volume does not 
lead us to the conclusion that all is to be interpreted 
by one fulfilment, but that the revelation will increase 
in clearness and intensity as the years roll on. 

2. But I pass on to a second canon of interpreta- 
tion. It is what Professor Birks has well called the 
law of prophetical perspective. Events in the history 
of the future are presented to the mind much in the 
same way as objects in a landscape are presented to 
the eye. We see trees, or houses, or mountains, in 
the foreground and in the distance, and frequently 
two hill-tops or two trees will appear to stand so 
close the one to the other, as to fill one space of the 
foreground ; but if we went to the spot, we should 
find that there is a considerable distance between 
them. And it is so with the language of prophecy : 



28o HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XL 

the great events of the future are grouped together 
so closely that they seem to be one ; but if they are 
examined closely, they will be found to be widely 
apart. Mede says, " In the study of the prophetical 
Scriptures, it is of great moment to bear in mind 
that the prophets, for the most part, speak of the 
coming of Christ indefinitely and in general, without 
that distinction of first and second coming which the 
gospel out of Daniel hath more clearly taught us. 
And so consequently they spake of the things to be 
at Christ's coming indefinitely and all together, which 
we, who are now more fully informed by the revela- 
tion of the gospel of a twofold coming, must apply 
each of them to its proper time ; those things which 
befit the state of His first coming unto the first, and 
w T hat befits the state of His second coming unto the 
second ; and what befits both alike may be applied 
unto both." To give one instance : We read of 
Messiah coming to proclaim the acceptable year of 
the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God (Isa. 
lxi. 2) ; but in Luke iv. our Lord, by closing the 
book at the words "acceptable year of the Lord," 
clearly showed that the day of vengeance was yet 
future, and eighteen hundred years have passed away, 
and it has not come yet. In like manner we argue 
that the Lord placing the sheep on His right hand 
and the goats on His left will not be the act of a 
moment, but -will admit of an interval, as it is in 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING. 281 

Revelation xx., where the first resurrection precedes 
by a thousand years the resurrection of the rest of 
the dead and their judgment at the great white 
throne. This will apply to many similar expressions, 
and will enable us to map out more or less definitely 
the possible order of the Divine dispensations. By 
this rule of looking along the vista of the future, the 
confusion which arises from joining together what 
God has put asunder will be avoided. 

3. But I hasten to one last suggestion. Let the 
personal pre-millenniai advent of Christ occupy a 
prominent place in appeals to the conscience of your 
hearers. 

If we had no other argument than that which the 
inspired writers of the New Testament have given to 
us, the importance of this rule would be evident ; for, 
with the exception of about two texts — and even these 
are not decisive as to the point at issue — we never 
find the Apostles urging the uncertainty of life or 
the near approach of death as a motive to zeal 
and holiness. The universal subject of appeal is the 
coming of the Lord (James iv. 14 ; I Cor. vii. 29). 
And there are many reasons for this. First, because 
practically few people are influenced, except at inter- 
vals, by the prospect of a sudden death ; they expect 
life may be prolonged indefinitely, and that when the 
last illness comes there will be space for repentance 
and preparation for eternity ; that they will be able 



282 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XL 

to settle their affairs, to make charitable distribution 
of their property, to leave goodwill and kindly 
feelings of forgiveness and of peace to those with 
whom they have enjoyed social acquaintance, and 
thus with a due and timely settlement of all their 
earthly concerns they will pass into eternity. But 
the second advent of Christ does not admit of any 
speculation of this sort. " Behold, I come as a thief; 
and when men shall say, Peace and safety, sudden 
destruction shall come upon them, as upon a woman 
with child ; and they shall not escape/ 1 We can 
imagine the case of a man who has been warned by 
his medical man that he has but a few hours to live, 
forming holy resolutions, hesitating before he makes 
up his mind whether he will surrender this or that 
portion of his property as a sacrifice to God and as 
an evidence of his piety, when, as he holds the pen in 
his hand, the lightning flash and the blazing heavens 
will take him unawares, and before he closes his eyes 
in death he will behold the Lord Jesus face to face, 
and receive of the things done in the body, whether 
they be good or evil. " He will judge the quick and 
dead at His appearing and kingdom/* is a more 
awakening appeal than the prospect of death ; and 
in Heb. ix. 27 the emphasis is upon the last clause — 
" It is appointed unto men once to die, but after that 
the judgment." 

Again, in an evangelical sense we cannot propose 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING. 283 

death as a motive, for there is always the idea of the 
curse connected with it, and no one would be justified 
in praying for death ; but the advent of Christ is the 
bright and blessed hope of the Church. Everything 
connected with it is full of immortality : it is the 
return of the Beloved ; it is the harvest-time of the 
Church ; it is the coming of the Bridegroom, the 
day of His espousals and of the gladness of His 
heart, when He shall see of the travail of His soul, 
and be satisfied ; it is that for which the Church 
longs with great desire; it is that for which the 
Church prays, " Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus." 
Once more, If it is used as an appeal to the 
unconverted, there is all the difference between the 
fear of death and the fear of judgment. St. Paul 
says, in 2 Cor. v. 1 1, " Knowing therefore the terror 
of the Lord, we persuade men ; for we must all 
appear before the judgment seat of Christ," etc., and 
in Heb. x. 30, 31, "For we know Him that hath 
said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. 
And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It is 
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
God." We have to do, not with an imaginary 
Christ, but with one who knew the bitterness of 
sin's exceeding sinfulness, who endured the wrath 
of God for our sakes, who was reckoned among the 
transgressors, and was forsaken of God, and who will 
in His second advent be "revealed from heaven 



284 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XI. 

with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking ven- 
geance on them that know not God, and that obey 
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
be punished with everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His 
power, when He shall come to be glorified in His 
saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in 
that day." 

Now, modern thinkers — for I cannot call them 
theologians — may deny the immortality of the soul 
of ungodly men, as they may accept the Romish 
figment of purgatory, or they may adopt the irra- 
tional and unphilosophical theory of annihilation, 
or invent for themselves a notion of an indistinct 
glimmering of hope in the newly coined discovery 
of an seonian Gehenna ; but they will never eradi- 
cate from the conscience of man, who consists of a 
body and a reasonable soul, the inward and secret 
conviction that this life is a season of probation, and 
that the advent of the Lord will decide for ever 
whether we are to live in His presence and in His 
likeness, or whether the door will be shut and the 
gulf be fixed, which will land us in outer darkness, 
and in separation from all that is holy and good and 
happy for ever. And I have yet to learn upon 
gospel principles, and the exalted view which is 
taken of the love of our Father in heaven, how the 
fires of purgatory and the penal sufferings which sin 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING.. 285 

brings along with it can produce repentance and love 
to God. The hardened heart in sin hardens still 
more under punishment ; its rebellion increases more 
and more, as with the fallen angels. It is the office 
of the Holy Ghost to convince of sin, and of the 
exalted Prince and Saviour to give repentance and 
remission of sin ; but when the final sentence shall 
have been spoken, u It is done. I am Alpha and 
Omega, the beginning and the end," there can be 
no further change in the condition of the separated 
parties ; the one will drink of the fountain of life, 
the other will have their part in the lake of fire, 
which is the second death. "He that is unjust, let 
him be unjust still ; he which is filthy, let him be 
filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let him be right- 
ous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy still 
And behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with 
me, to give every man according as his work shall 
be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 
end, the first and the last." 

Finally. In the study of prophecy I venture to 
offer a word of caution, which is the result of many 
years' experience in dealing with this subject. It is 
this : Take heed of systems. Of prophetic writers it 
may be said, I fear, " Every one of you hath a psalm, 
hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, 
hath an interpretation." There may be much that is 
true in the works of Mede, and Horsley, and Newton, 



286 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XL 

and Elliott, and Faber, and writers of the Futurist 
school, but no one who reads history carefully, and 
compares their system as a whole with the signs of 
the times as they have developed in the progress 
of the age, will be content to call any one of them 
master. What we need to bear in mind is, first, that 
the one only infallible guide in the knowledge of 
prophecy is God the Holy Ghost. " He will guide 
you into all the truth ; He will show you things to 
come." 

And secondly, I would observe that the shadows 
lessen as we approach the substance ; and as the 
time draws near we may expect clearer and more 
distinct marks of the Divine purpose. " Go thy way, 
Daniel ; for the words are closed up and sealed till 
the time of the end. None of the wicked shall 
understand, but the wise shall understand." And 
if this be so, we may in the spirit of prayer and of 
humble inquiry compare things spiritual with spiritual, 
and wait for the morning. It is not a little remark- 
able that the Holy Ghost has awakened the Church 
at different epochs to the assertion of certain truths, 
such as justification by faith at the Reformation, and 
the work of the Holy Ghost in the revival of this 
century ; and it would seem that the subject of our 
Lord's coming is now taking possession of the minds 
of the Lord's people to an extent it has never done 
before. May we not argue from this that it is the 



Lect. XL] PROPHECY AND PREACHING. 287 

subject specially suited to meet the errors of the 
day ? and is it not one which is likely above all 
others to draw our hearts together in holy love and 
hope ? " Thy watchmen shall see eye to eye when 
the Lord brings again Jerusalem." 



Iparigfr Wioxh in its §ielaticm; to % €mt ol 
Souls. 

BY THE REVEREND THOMAS DEHANY BERNARD, M.A., CANON 
OF WELLS AND RECTOR OF WALCOT, BATH. 



XII. 

PARISH WORK IN ITS RELATION TO THE CURE 
OF SOULS. 

AS English clergymen, we are engaged in parish 
work, and we are entrusted with the cure of 
souls. Are, then, parish work and the cure of souls 
one and the same thing ? If not, what is the relation 
between them ? When these questions are answered, 
we can draw our practical conclusions. 

I. The parish is a community, a congregated life, 
a territorial subdivision of the Church, an ecclesias- 
tical compartment of the nation, a historical and 
transmitted arrangement. For the clergy, in the 
office which they bear, it is the prepared and pre- 
scribed field of action ; and the character of the 
action must correspond to the character of the field. 
Parish work, therefore, is not a mission, nor the 
instruction of separated disciples, nor the pastorate 
of a voluntary congregation (however in great cities 
things may be tending that way). It is each of 
these, and more than all of them. It is the official 
ministry and presidency in a mingled life, with 



?ca HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIL 

diverse elements, forms, and appliances ; itself part 
of a larger life — namely, that of a national church, 
such as historic facts and inherited influences have 
made it. 

Our duty is to fill our place rather than to fashion 
it. In the order on which God has put the world, 
it is fashioned for us. The materials to be dealt 
with, the opportunities to be used, the calls to be 
obeyed, are all there to begin with ; partly obligatory, 
partly optional. But even the optional occasions of 
work we do not generally invent. We find them 
awaiting us when we enter on the scene, or rising, 
as we go, before our steps. 

The life of the Church, in its inward essence, is one 
and always the same ; but in its outward accidents 
it is local and variable, changing from age to age, 
as it is affected by the constant pressure of the 
course of this world, and by the incessant modifica- 
tions of the atmosphere of thought. Parish work 
is done among these outward accidents, and con- 
sequently its exigencies, duties, and possibilities, 
even under a system professedly unaltered, are not 
precisely the same in one generation as they were 
in that which preceded it — a fact of which one who 
finds himself in a second generation of the ministry 
becomes, I can assure you, very sensible. Survey 
for a moment its constituent elements, as they now 
exist — some, as I have said, obligatory, some op- 



Lect. XII.] PARISH WORK. 293 

tional, some common to us all, some holding a place 
in one locality which they scarcely find in another. 
They are such as these : the celebration of divine 
offices in the congregation, in common prayer, ad- 
ministration of the sacraments, and the public 
preaching of the Word ; the blessing of marriages, 
the burial of the dead, the visitation of the sick ; 
the preparation for confirmation, the Sunday-school, 
instruction for particular classes or on special occa- 
sions, the cottage lecture, the prayer-meeting, the 
Bible-class, missionary aggressions on those without ; 
the collecting and distributing of alms, the providing 
and superintending district visitors, Sunday-school 
teachers, lay readers, deaconesses, Bible-women, 
recognised servants of the Church by whatever 
name described ; the general pastoral visitation for 
distinct spiritual intercourse, and for the cultivation 
of acquaintance and influence with the people ; the 
watchfulness over public morals ; the dealing as we 
can with scandals, dissensions, and calamities ; the 
support and care of schools, with the ever-augment- 
ing trouble caused by new Acts and codes and 
restrictions, and relations with the Committee, the 
Board, and the Department ; the public meetings 
for countless religious objects ; the part to be 
taken in the missionary work of the Church ; the 
Temperance movement, with its entertainments and 
Bands of Hope; the network of societies and organi- 



294 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XII. 

zations in which our feet are getting entangled ; 
the associations for the young ; the trouble to be 
taken about church arrangements and accessories of 
public worship ; especially the choir, tea-meetings, 
and social gatherings, the presidency of vestries, 
the co-operation with other authorities, the general 
part to be taken in all movements for the public 
good. 

Consider this multifarious mass of occupation, 
which appears to be ever increasing, and you have 
before you the parish work of our time, in which, in 
our different measures, we are rightly or inevitably 
engaged. As elders of the Church, we have a recog- 
nized place in the general life of a Christian people, 
whose recognition of the office is part of their Chris- 
tian profession, creating for us the duties which we 
owe them in return. We are stewards of God in 
an ancient household, which has inherited old habits, 
and is ever generating new exigencies. 

Now turn to the cure of souls. What do we mean 
in speaking of souls ? We are then thinking of men, 
not collectively, but distributively — as individual, per- 
sonal, immortal. We are separating the man from 
his accidents, even from that body which is for the 
present a part of himself. We are looking on his 
present as a stage in his eternal history, and regarding 
him as the object of the grace, and the subject of the 
judgment, of God. Let me quote some words of 



Lect. XI L] PARISH WORK. 295 

Dr. Newman's. (I heard them from the pulpit, in 
distant days not to be forgotten.) 

" The point to be considered is this, that every soul 
of man, which is or has been on earth, has a separate 
existence ; and that in eternity, not in time merely 
— -in the unseen world, not merely in this — not only 
during its mortal life, but ever from the hour of its 
creation, whether joined to a body of flesh or not. 
Nothing is more difficult than to realize that every 
one of all the millions who live, or have lived, is as 
whole and independent a being in himself as if there 
were no one else in the world but he." 

He goes on to speak of our habit of regarding men 
collectively, " classing them in masses, as we might 
connect the stones of a building/' for instance, in the 
case of an army or a nation. 

" They seem for a short time to be some one thing ; 
and we, from our habit of living by sight, regard 
them as one, and drop the notion of their being any- 
thing else. And when this one dies, and that one dies, 
we forget that it is the passages of separate immortal 
beings into an unseen state, that the whole which 
appears is but appearance, and that the component 
parts are the realities. . . . Survey some populous 
towns : crowds are pouring through the streets ; while 
the shops are full, and the houses too, could we see 
into them. Every part of it is full of life. Hence 
we gain a general idea of splendour, opulence, and 



296 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XII. 

energy. But what is the truth ? Why, that every 
being in that great concourse is his own centre, and 
all things about him are but shades, but c a vain shadow, 
in which he walketh and disquieteth himself in vain.' 
He has his own hopes, fears, desires, judgments, and 
aims : he is everything to himself, and no one else is 
really anything. He must live with himself for ever, 
He has a depth within him unfathomable, an infinite 
abyss of existence ; and the scene in which he * bears 
part for the moment is but like a gleam of sunshine 
on its surface/ " 

This is what is said to be so hard for us to realize, 
when, we have to do with collections of people. " We 
cannot understand that a multitude is but a collection 
of immortal souls/' 

But that is precisely what, as ministers of Christ, 
we have to understand ; for Christ did not redeem 
the parish, nor will He judge the congregation. 
These collections of people with whom we have to 
do have no doubt their corporate aspect, as has 
the Church itself of which they are a part ; but 
that aspect is only on the surface ; and, as we look 
earnestly upon it, it coheres no longer, but breaks up 
into its component parts, separate immortal souls in 
their eternal relations with God ; and these are our 
charge for which we must give account. 

The cure of souls, then, involves whatever on our 
part can affect the spiritual state, or shape the spiritual 



Lect. XII.] PARISH WORK 297 

history, of men thus regarded. We " seek for Christ's 
sheep which are scattered abroad, that they may be 
saved through Christ for ever," not knowing who they 
are, but seeking them by indiscriminate endeavours 
for "all men, that we may by all means save some." 
For this seeking and saving, we rely on the Divine 
instrument committed to us, — "the word of God, 
which is able to save the soul," applying and adapting 
its various powers directly, indirectly, in public and 
in private. Whatever may prepare for salvation, 
whatever may commence, advance, secure, complete it, 
is included in the work ; understanding by salvation 
not only an event, but a state and a history — not 
only the rescue, but the health and soundness of the 
soul. 

This glance at each side of our subject is enough. 
Plainly the parish work and the cure of souls are 
not the same thing ; they do not, in a mathematical 
sense, coincide on the whole, however they may do 
so partially. The first is wider than the second, and 
may be much less deep ; it has respect to the general 
life of the community, and is busy on the surface of 
things. It is certainly possible, perhaps it is not 
uncommon, for a man to do much in the first while 
he does little in the second. There are probably not 
a few parishes where things are kept going with much 
devotion both of labour and power; where there are 
attractive services, able preaching, good schools, and 



298 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XII, 

all sorts of activities and organizations; but where 
there is no proportionate apprehension of, and no 
proportionate provision for, the real wants of indi- 
vidual immortal souls. There may be a lively scene 
on the surface, but not much going on beneath it. 

On the other hand, it is plain that the relation 
between parish work and the cure of souls (if both 
be rightly understood) is of the very closest. The 
two may only partially coincide, but they coincide at 
the centre. The cure of souls still remains the central 
essential part of the parish work, which has grown 
around it and spread beyond it into remoter and 
more secular connections, but which is still its field 
and framework, securing its conditions, and furnishing 
its occasions, and deriving from that relation all its 
own proper worth and honour. 

II. The questions with which I started being 
answered, the practical conclusions follow. 

I. It is our obvious duty to give the first place — 
yes, and the second and the third — to those parts of 
parish work which are also directly, and by their proper 
nature, parts of the cure of souls. 

It is easy to give this counsel ; not always easy to 
comply with it. The restlessness and complexity of 
the public life around us affect us all. In many, very 
many positions, they more than affect, they almost 
overwhelm us. Demands on time and attention 
multiply. Compliance with one opens the way for 



Lect. XI L] PARISH WORK. 299 

others. In proportion to the importance of a man's 
place, to his personal influence, to his capacity for 
business, or for being in any way of use, the calls 
are more continual. There is a meeting here, a 
committee there. Shall we pass our lives in presiding, 
conferring, organizing, defending ? in managing other 
people, and getting things done ? We might easily 
be lost in this superficial life. I do not say we should 
drop the spiritual work ; but it would be shrunk, and 
the heart taken out of it. The danger is not new or 
peculiar to our day or our Church. It showed itself 
at once. . " It is not reason that we should leave 
the word of God, and serve tables. We will give 
ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of 
the word." From the first moment it was necessary 
that the office which we hold should be protected by 
this resolve. A Divine foresight has perpetuated the 
apostolic sayings, uttered on typical though passing 
occasions, as irreversible sentences to guard and guide 
the Church in altered circumstances and distant ages. 
We at this day have special reasons to recall the 
sentence just recited. 

In parish work the ministry of the Word is but 
another name for the cure of souls. It is our busi- 
ness so to regard it, so to treat it ; and that is not 
always done. No doubt, whatever is spoken in the 
ministry of the Word, if it be truly spoken, is of 
some sort of use. But there is a difference between 



3co HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XI I. 

that which has an aim and that which has none. 
There is a kind of preacher of whom it has been 
said, " He aims at nothing, and hits it. ,, And where 
there is an aim, it is often sidelong, to prove some 
abstract point, or discuss a question of the day, or 
present an imaginative picture, without any serious 
purpose of personal application to the hearers. As 
they were not present in the study when the sermon 
was composed, perhaps they were forgotten ; and the 
treatment of the subject seemed itself to be the end, 
instead of a means to an effect beyond. 

If preaching be a part of the cure of souls, it must 
aim at the soul, and we have remembered what that 
word intends. This aim is definite, but it is manifold. 
It means that the preacher or teacher is conscious of 
the actual state of living men and women in their 
relations to truth, to salvation, and to God ; conscious 
of the delusions in which they acquiesce, of the shifts 
to which they resort, of the debates going on within 
them, of the strangely inconsistent feelings at work 
in the same breast, of the Protean nature of man, 
never more Protean than in his relations with the 
word that is meant to save him ; conscious of the 
wants, anxieties, inquiries, conflicts, which that word 
is to arouse and to meet ; conscious of the dubious 
symptoms, the precarious conditions that belong to 
awakening souls, of the different exigencies created 
by different circumstances, by successes, disappoint- 



Lect. XII.] PARISH WORK. 301 

ments, sorrows, temptations, falls ; conscious of the 
growing demands, the expanding capacities, the ex- 
pectant sympathies of souls that are alive unto God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. I am not advocating 
those refinements of introspection which make much 
of our literature unhealthy, nor a subtle mental 
analysis which not one in a thousand can conduct ; 
but I say that he who aims at the good of souls must, 
according to his measure of perception, deal with 
souls as they really are. You may make your broad 
distinctions — converted and unconverted, believers 
and unbelievers; you must make them, enough to 
have it felt that those lines are really drawn by Him 
"who seeketh and judgeth." But in our hands these 
bare outlines give no personal features ; and if we 
go no farther, the multitude eludes our classification, 
and escapes our hands. Our business is with actual 
facts and feelings which we have to treat, and in 
which we recognize the processes which tend, the 
tokens which point, to the one side or the other. So 
Scripture deals with men, and teaches us to deal with 
them ; not merely sorting them out in masses, but 
noting their individual characters. In the narratives 
of what they say or do, or in the reproofs and exhor- 
tations of the Epistles, our attention is fixed on the 
particular conditions of mind, while the state on the 
whole is left with God. In saying that the preacher 
should be " conscious " of these conditions, I did not 



302 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XII. 

mean that he should occupy himself in describing 
them, but that he should speak under such a sense of 
them as will give point and direction to his message. 
The message itself is the word of the truth of the 
gospel and the doctrine which is according to godli- 
ness. Only, in the cure of souls, this is not to be 
delivered as a testimony, but to be applied as a power, 
with intent to awaken, convince, and convert, to 
inform and enlighten, to animate and console, to save 
and sanctify. 

The preaching of the Word in the congregation 
stands first among those parts of parish work which 
are properly and directly instruments in the cure 
of souls. But what has been said applies not only 
to the Sunday sermon, but to all ancillary kinds 
of teaching in occasional or informal assemblies, in 
classes, schools, or pastoral visitation. In these the 
instruction naturally derives its adaptation from the 
circumstances, and fits itself to the case before us, as 
we are brought closer to the capacities and necessities 
of the poor, or the young, or some distinct class of 
hearers. These separate methods of dealing with 
souls have on this account a special value ; not, 
indeed, as a substitute for, but as an addition to, 
the teaching in the congregation ; for people are the 
better for being taught apart, but they are also the 
better for being taught together, feeling themselves 
parts of the general body of the Church, and sharing 



Lect. XII.] PARISH WORK. 303 

in the common word of "the common salvation." 
But we have great cause to prize and improve the 
opportunities which our system of parish work affords 
for special and separate teaching. We know, for 
instance, what effective use may be made of the 
preparation of candidates for confirmation, when at a 
critical turning-point of life the young are delivered 
into our hands to work on their hearts as God may 
help us ; or what an occasion for cultivating a higher 
character of spiritual thought and faith and life in 
Christ is given by a quiet and devout meeting of 
communicants. 

But all such work as this needs to be united with 
\ the habitual intercourse zvith individual souls. This is 
the more to be mentioned because in large parishes 
and in busy life there is a strong temptation to drop 
it. It is natural to say, How can I turn my time to 
account in that way, when there is so much to be 
done on a larger scale ? What proportion of this 
multitude could thus be reached ? If I should visit 
five people in a day, what are they among five 
thousand ? So with many pastors pastoral visita- 
tion ceases. I have known men come out of town 
parishes, where it had thus been abandoned, into 
country parishes, where it was both feasible and 
essential, having lost the habit, which they have 
seemed unable to recover. But personal intercourse 
is not only of use to the parishioner, it is of great 



304 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XII. 

importance to the pastor for the tone and spirit of 
his ministry. It is a necessary corrective to the habit 
of mind engendered by dealing with assemblies and 
the influences of a public life. It keeps the individual 
soul in view as the reality with which we have to deal. 
It humbles and warns us too, by making us feel what 
utter misapprehensions of the truth, what evasions of 
it, what resistances to it, are going on under the 
surface of the orderly and attentive congregation. It 
furnishes us with typical instances of religious con- 
ditions and experiences, which show what we have 
to meet and consider in the public ministry of the 
Word. These and the like benefits to ourselves are 
to be taken into account in addition to the positive 
help and comfort afforded to particular souls entrusted 
to us by the great Shepherd of the sheep. 

2. I turn from the distinctly spiritual parts of 
parish work to its general system, as affording a field 
and framework for the cure of souls. If so, it is our 
duty to carry out that general system, and to do so 
for this particular end. 

There is sometimes need to uphold this duty. A 
man may be struck with the absence of immediate 
spiritual aim in much that belongs to his place, and 
may be disposed to limit himself to what seems to 
bear directly on the souls of his people. I have 
known parishes where the ministry has been thus 
confined, and the ultimate effect has been at variance 



Lect. XI I.J PARISH WORK. 305 

with the intention : and no wonder, for our providential 
position in the general Christian life of the community 
cannot be abdicated without detriment to the highest 
interests in our charge. The means and appliances 
of good influence fail, and a languid and dissatisfied 
state ensues, from which the religious life must suffer. 

It is evident, in the first place, that the general 
parish work on its more secular side is subsidiary 
to the spiritual, as aiming to give it a fair field by 
efforts directed against ignorance, improvidence, in- 
temperance, by the improvement of social habits, 
by the increase of intelligence, by the diminution of 
temptations, and by taking up stumbling-blocks out 
of the way. 

Next, it is to be observed that this kind of work 
has an important use as exhibiting what may be 
called the secondary effects of Christianity ; and we 
must remember that it is in the border-land between 
the secular and spiritual, and through appreciation 
of things obviously good and useful, that men are 
disposed to consider the principles and listen to the 
truths with which they see these things to be con- 
nected. It is a rule for us in our work as clergymen, 
as well as in our lives as Christians — "Whatsoever 
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, what- 
soever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, 
whatsoever things are lovely, if there be any virtue, 
and if there be any praise, think on these things." 

20 



306 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XII. 

Yet again, a well-ordered parish, with various 
useful activities, affords assistance to the cure of 
souls in the way of educating spiritual life by calls 
to service and prepared exercises of duty. " Ye shall 
call upon them to do work " is as much a part of 
this education as " Ye shall call upon them to hear 
sermons;" and time which is spent in "provoking 
to love and to good works," and in the association 
in them which follows, is net deducted from, but 
added to, that which is passed in the cure of souls. 

Finally, the connection of parish work on the 
whole with the essential part of it which we call 
the cure of souls is to be regarded in the light of a 
larger fact. The spiritual life on earth is by the 
will of God a part of a general life associated with 
the external scenes by which it is affected on all 
sides and in all ways. We cannot isolate the spiritual 
life, as if the soul were one being and the man were 
another. What a variety of influences seem to have 
a share in shaping the inward state, and telling upon 
eternal destinies! What a mystery is this human 
heart in relation to its present surroundings, now 
touched and attracted, now hardened and repelled, 
in ways we could not anticipate ! It draws its 
inspirations and assistances from all quarters, with a 
freedom that will not be forced. It assimilates ideas 
which it meets by chance, while inaccessible to others 
which are pressed upon it. It guards itself against 



Lect. XII.] PARISH WORK. 307 

a deliberate aim, and lies open to the arrow shot 
at a venture. Why note these things ? To remind 
ourselves that whatever may be done by direct aim 
and intention, perhaps more is done unconsciously 
and indirectly. 

It is, I think, a principle to be recognised, that in 
the cure of souls there is larger fruit from influence 
than from effort (not from influence without effort, 
for then the influence would not exist). Probably 
more souls are affected by our work on the sides 
than in the front ; more by oblique impressions than 
by our direct arguments and persuasions ; more, too, 
by derived and associated influences than by that 
which is personal and immediate. Other sources 
of influence than ourselves ought to spring and form 
around us. A congregation which has a sense of 
interest, union, and life, generates its own influences 
within and beyond itself. There is a power in con- 
gregated numbers, in the full communion, in the 
warm response, in the tone of reverence and devo- 
tion. There is a power in genuine conversions, in 
men visibly advancing in virtue and godliness, in 
characters which rise above the common level to 
shine as lights in the world, and adorn the doctrine 
of God our Saviour in all things. There is a power 
in a general spirit of life and activity, of order and 
unity, and in the presence on the right hand and 
on the left of things edifying, useful, wholesome. 



308 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XII. 

These and the like are the influences I mean, ever 
telling insensibly on individual souls. I call them 
derived and associated in so far as it is our part to 
originate or sustain them, or to attract and associate 
them to ourselves. It is, as we all know, through 
these that much of the cure of souls is fulfilled. It 
is happier for us than if we felt ourselves commis- 
sioned to be the sole converters of our brethren, or 
the framers of their life towards God by authorita- 
tive spiritual direction. Our personal work may be 
traceable but a little way, but we may be com- 
municating impulses which reproduce themselves, 
and spread in widening circles. 

What encouragement does this give to our work 
on the whole ! making us feel that all good influences 
which we can create are potentially precious ; that 
even the minor parts of our ministry work in with 
the general system, and may contribute in some 
sidelong way to results we long for ; and that prayers 
and pains are proper to whatever we do in u taking 
care of the Church of God." It does more. It 
brings our action into conscious unison w r ith the 
action of the Spirit of God, breathing where He lists, 
and working how He will. We know not whence 
He cometh, or whither He goeth; but we know 
that He is the Spirit of promise, and that, in parish 
work and cure of souls, we serve not the Lord Christ 
without the Holy Ghost the Comforter. 



^nntoxnl tBxmfatwn. 



BY THE REVEREND WILLIAM CADMAN, M.A., PREBENDARY OF 
ST. PAUL'S, AND RECTOR OF HOLY TRINITY, MARYLEBONE, 
LONDON. 



XIIL 

. PASTORAL VISITATION. 

MY subject is "Pastoral Visitation"; about which 
I may observe by way of preface that what I 
shall say is gathered not from books or the opinions 
of others, but is simply the result of my own ex- 
perience during the past thirty-seven years. 

The duty of Pastoral Visitation seems to me to 
rest upon a Divine command. We are told to be 
diligent to know the state of our flocks, and to look 
well to our herds (Prov. xxvii. 23). If we give a 
spiritual meaning to these directions, it is manifest 
that the public ministry of the Word and its ordi- 
nances is not sufficient for the manifestation of all 
the diligence that is required in order to know the 
condition of our parishes and the state of our flocks. 
The public ministry of the Word needs to be sup- 
plemented by pastoral watchfulness. 

The Church requires this of all her ministers. Her 
deacons are to "search for the sick, poor, and impo- 
tent people of the parish" — to ascertain their estates, 
names, and places where they dwell. This implies 



312 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIII. 

pastoral visitation. Her priests are to be " ready to 
use both public and private monitions and exhor- 
tations, as well to the sick as to the whole, within 
their cures." This, again, involves pastoral visitation. 
The principle, therefore, of pastoral work we all ac- 
knowledge. We must supplement the outward ordi- 
nances of the Church by making personal rounds of 
inspection, so as t6 ascertain by friendly calls or visits 
the state of the different members of our flock. We 
have not to wait for the people to enter the church, 
but we must go out to " compel them to come in/' 
Fishers of men will not be contented with merely 
casting their nets — they will desire to learn how and 
whereto cast them to the greatest advantage; and 
in order to do this, acquaintance must be gained as 
to the habits and conditions and characters of their 
people. 

Here, however, I wish to make two explanations. 
When I speak of Pastoral Visitation, I mean Pastoral 
Visitation as respects the clergy y though I do not wish 
to imply that none but the clergy are to be engaged 
in this good work. Happily, Christian workers 
among the lay members of our congregations are 
increasing rapidly. Numbers of the laity recognise 
the importance of this visitation by the help which 
they cheerfully give to those set apart to the sacred 
office. It is impossible to overrate the help thus 
given by Scripture readers, district visitors, and 



Lect. XIII.] PASTORAL VISITATION. 3 £3 

voluntary teachers, at Bible-classes, mothers' meetings, 
cottage lectures, etc . 

Moreover, as a second word of explanation, I would 
observe that if I do not speak now of the work of 
others outside our own Church, it is not because I 
mean to ignore them on the ground that they follow 
not with us. No true Churchman would wish to 
forbid any one seeking to destroy the evils of igno- 
rance and vice, and contempt of God's word and 
commandments. These are evils against which we 
too contend ; and they that are not against us are 
on our part. But even so, it is well to know what 
agencies for good or evil are working amongst us. 
We do not ignore or underrate the good work of 
others when we seek to perfect our own. 

These things premised, the work of a pastor 
carries with it the necessity for pastoral visitation. 
For the purpose of doing that work I think we 
should bear in mind several particulars. A pastor 
must feed the lambs and sheep of the fold. He must 
guard against members of the flock straying from 
that fold. He must mend and repair the hedges and 
enclosures of that fold. He must search for the lost. 
He must try and reclaim the straying and wandering. 
He must try to heal the morally sick and the dis- 
eased. He must give all his care and diligence to 
protect the fold over which he is appointed the shep- 
herd. 



314 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIII. 

How then is he set about this ? At the commence- 
ment of one's ministry I grant there are many 
difficulties in the way. In the present day, however, 
the younger clergy haye in many cases the advan- 
tage of the counsel of their elder brethren. It is 
the bounden duty of the elder clergy to show them 
sympathy and brotherly kindness, and to introduce 
them to their work. On the other hand, it is the 
duty of the younger brethren to give their full con- 
fidence to those with whom they are to labour ; to 
seek to be a comfort to them ; to do nothing new 
without consulting them ; to submit to them their 
plans, in order that they may be sanctioned, or 
modified, or adapted to the circumstances of the 
parish, with which the incumbent may be supposed 
to be better acquainted than a younger man just 
introduced. 

It is of prime importance, however, to get a know- 
ledge of one's people. In populous places and large 
cities it may not be possible to gain an intimate 
acquaintance with the different families of the parish ; 
but in country places it is otherwise. I have occupied 
country positions, and I know it is quite possible to 
gain a tolerably accurate knowledge of the various 
residents in a country parish. You can speak to 
every one, and the small change of benevolence and 
courtesy is never so circulated as to be lost. We 
can speak to the labourer in the field about his 



Lect. XIII.] PASTORAL VISITATION. 315 

seeds ; to the waggoner about his team ; to the^ 
farmer about his crops ; to the squire about his 
tenants ; and to the poor about their children, — and 
moreover make use of all these, not as subjects of 
conversation only, but as vehicles for conveying our 
all-important message. To the old people we can 
talk about the famous things (as they think them) 
that are connected with the history of their parish ; 
for every parish has its history, and every parishioner 
likes the parson to show an interest in what he thinks 
makes his parish distinguished from every other. 

Again, we can keep a diary, and note down our 
conversations with parishioners. Half an hour spent 
in this way every day will be found to pay well. It is 
of immense advantage, even in the smallest parish. 
Through pursuing this plan I am able to recall con- 
versations I had with persons in my parish more than 
thirty years ago. I may add that individual examples 
are thus found of the characteristics of human nature 
and the working of Divine grace, such as are after- 
wards met with on a larger scale among the teeming 
multitudes of our crowded populations. 

In large towns the difficulty of pastoral visitation 
is considerably increased, and nothing can be done 
without organization and arrangement. But suppose 
that such organization does not already exist, how 
is the clergyman to begin his work ? I say, Begin 
with the young. If in a poor and neglected parish a 



3i6 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIII. 

Sunday or night school does not exist, begin one, even 
though it be in the very humblest form. Any sort of 
room, in which a few children can be gathered — a 
donkey shed, a carpenter's room, or a deserted crockery 
warehouse, — any or all of these, if no better can be 
had, may be adapted for the present purpose. Begin, 
and no difficulty will be found in getting a congre- 
gation. Children can always be collected, though a 
regular attendance cannot always be easily sustained. 
The effort to do them good will be invaluable in its 
bearing on pastoral visitation. The clergyman will 
soon find his work increasing on his hands. - 

But if schools exist already, then give the religious 
instruction your earnest care. Make it as prominent 
a feature as possible ; watch over the secular instruc- 
tion also ; examine the registers, look after absentees ; 
especially call upon children that are sick. Parents 
appreciate all this attention, and so the child prepares 
the way for pastoral visitation. The clergyman soon 
becomes known, and he gradually gains the confi- 
dence of his flock. While visiting he hears of the 
sick, the sorrowful, the bereaved ; and a kind word, a 
kind letter, a kind action, sometimes a kind look, is a 
seed from which grows an immensity of influence for 
pastoral visitation. 

Whilst this is going on, it will be well to begin to 
organize (for I am supposing a case where organiza- 
tion does not already exist). For this purpose take 



Lect. XIII.] PASTORAL VISITATION. 317 

a map of the parish (such a map is easily to be 
obtained now by reason of the survey that has been 
made), and mark it out into manageable divisions. 
Suppose you go on the now generally recognised 
principle that 2,000 persons are sufficient for the 
attention of any one clergyman. Determine then on 
one spot for special effort in which there are concen- 
trated this number of souls, or thereabouts. I would 
say, select this smaller district rather than waste effort 
by desultory work in a larger area. Choose first 
some special spot, and then occupy the remainder 
with what speed you may by the help of additional 
agencies. I believe that a persevering effort of this 
kind, even for a few weeks, will avail the pastor more 
than working over a larger space, and he will be 
driven to ask additional help — although even this will 
impose additional work, because he will then have the 
superintendence of the labours of others. 

If those who have not yet had experience will take 
a lesson from those who have sometimes burnt their 
fingers in this matter, they will bear a few words on 
the importance of clerical caution in connection with 
lay liberality. In business transactions, such as the 
hire of rooms, the purchase of a site, etc., it is well 
that the clergyman should not be the negotiating 
agent. The moment it is known he wants a room 
or a piece of land, the price in the market goes up 
amazingly. It is far better for the clergyman to ask 



318 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIII. 

the help of his churchwardens or some lay friend in 
whom he has confidence. It is well for him to see 
his way before he begins to incur large expense, lest 
there should ensue discouragement in his efforts, lest 
broken spirits and perhaps broken health should 
cause him to say, " Oh, it is no use trying," or, " I must 
give up the attempt to do what I find I can never 
accomplish/' 

Whilst speaking, however, of parochial agencies, let 
me thankfully call your attention to the existence of 
well-known societies which render assistance, such as 
the Church Pastoral Aid Society, also, I must add, 
the Additional Curates' Society, to say nothing of 
other societies of this kind. Any help that can be 
obtained in this way is important, not to save the 
clergyman work, but to enable him to do his work 
more efficiently, and so to give effect to pastoral 
visitation. 

But supposing the organization established, the 
next question is how to carry it on. Here, then, I 
would give a prominent place to the institution of a 
series of afternoon or evening readings. Call them 
" cottage lectures " if you will, though in the large 
towns the name seems as inappropriate as that of a 
"rural dean" to a man who knows little of rural 
scenery. For the present, however, we will call them 
cottage lectures. To establish one, ask through a 
Bible-woman or lay agent for the loan of a room, 



Lect. XIII.] PASTORAL VISITATION, 319 

invite the people of the house (for it may contain 
many families), or invite the neighbours to come, who 
cannot walk as far as the church by reason of rheu- 
matic affections or such-like infirmities, and so have 
your audience of, say, a dozen people collected on the 
day assigned. The clergyman, punctual to his en- 
gagement, enters, and salutes those that are assembled 
in the room. He then takes his Bible, or what some- 
times is better still, the Bible of the house, that has 
been put on the table for his use, and then asking 
for God's blessing he seeks to expound some portion 
of the Scriptures, and ends with prayer. The whole 
of this service need not occupy more than twenty 
minutes. He may stop afterwards to speak to those 
who may wish to speak to him y and he will frequently 
find persons desirous of doing so. And in this 
manner he may often hear of persons of whom before 
he knew nothing, but who will be glad to give him a 
welcome if he will call upon them. In these lectures 
he can administer caution, or advice, or reproof, as 
the case requires. Three such meetings might be 
taken in one afternoon, without unduly taxing a 
clergyman's strength, and thus virtually thirty-six 
persons may be personally visited in the time that is 
sometimes given to three. I cannot over-estimate a 
plan like this, when with heart and soul it is entered 
into and persevered in. 

I may now mention another plan to economise 



320 H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIII. 

time and work, and to maintain the efficiency of 
pastoral visitation. It is the consultation of the 
church's registers, by means of which we find the 
anniversaries of our people's joys and sorrows. A 
congratulatory visit may be paid on the anniversary 
r of a marriage, an inquiry visit may be paid on the 
anniversary of a baptism, or soon after a churching, 
or after a confirmation. A sympathetic visit may be 
paid where a list is kept of deaths or of funerals. In 
our town populations burial registers are not now 
commonly kept, but it is well to note from time to 
time the date of " the departure " of parishioners, and 
if a letter be sent, or a call made on the survivors, 
much good may be done thereby. These attentions, 
resulting from the perusal of the church registers, 
show that the people's interests are near to the 
pastor's thoughts, and that he can rejoice with those 
that do rejoice, and mourn with those who weep, 
and a hold is thereby gained upon the affections of 
his people. In populous towns this carrying out of 
the parochial system is difficult ; but the parochial 
system is such a good one, that I do think we ought 
to do all we can to support and increase its efficiency. 
Next let me say I think it wise to take advantage 
of providential circumstances. If I see the blinds 
drawn down or the window-shutters up, I know that 
there is an opening in God's providence for inquiry \ 
and for a word in season, which may prove refreshing 



Lect. XIII.] PASTORAL VISITATION. 321 

to the sorrowful and to the weary. I add to these 
suggestions the importance of conveying in every 
possible way to the knowledge of our parishioners 
that we* are accessible to them, and that no hour of 
the day or night could be mentioned that w r e are not 
willing to devote to the welfare and comfort of out- 
people, if strength be permitted to us, or if other 
duties do not interfere. I know very well that* un- 
reasonable and unseasonable applications are some- 
times made on a clergyman. Unreasonable, because 
he is asked in the midst of his Sunday work to visit 
some particular case which might possibly be visited 
just as well on the morrow; and sometimes unseason- 
able, because he may be called out at any hour, 
just like a medical man — only that the medical man 
is paid for his visit, and the clergyman is not. I 
call these unreasonable and unseasonable requests. 
Nevertheless, it will be found that the effort and 
self-denial required in order to meet such requests 
will increase the confidence the people repose in the 
clergyman, and will often provide an opportunity for 
him to give some testimony about his Master and 
His great salvation, which perhaps would be at no 
other time so much in season or be so well received. 

A word or two of caution may, however, be added 
here, lest what I have said should be mistaken. 
While sometimes exposed to unreasonable and un-^ 
seasonable applications from our people, we must 

21 



322 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XIII. 

take care never to be unreasonable or unseasonable 
in our visits to them. For example, we have no 
right to intrude upon them. A poor man's abode, 
whether a cellar, an attic, or a garret, is as sacred to 
him as to its owner is the mansion of the rich. If we 
call at meal- time, or at a time when it is inconvenient 
to receive a visitor, apologies should of course be 
made, with the added remark that we will call again 
at a time more suitable. Again, in visiting the sick, 
we ought not to be long with them. A few appro- 
priate words framed upon or suggested by some text 
of Scripture, with a short prayer, will be all that in 
some cases the sick person can bear, and to remain 
any longer would be inconvenient to both patient 
and friends, as well as prejudicial to the object we 
have in view. We must, moreover, make a point of 
visiting all sorts of cases ; not only the pleasant and 
agreeable, but those also where our visits seem less 
appreciated. Look at the physician going his rounds 
in the hospital. All the cases are examined: some 
are of the disagreeable kind, whilst others do not 
excite repulsion. So ought it to be with the clergy- 
man. Every person has a claim upon him — both the 
froward and the meek. 

I would here suggest of what importance it is to 
be good listeners. This is especially necessary where 
a visit is paid to those who speak only of their 
sorrows, and tell you they have had so many they 



Lect. XIII.] PASTORAL VISITATION. 323 

could write a book about them. It is very disagree- 
able to have to do this, but still to be a good listener 
gives confidence, and sometimes affords occasion to 
put in a seasonable word to lift up the thoughts 
from earth to heaven. Whilst, however, we are good 
listeners when parishioners are speaking of their own 
sorrows, we must not encourage talk about or against 
neighbours. We must at once close such conversa- 
tion, and talk of something more profitable. 

In the next place, we ought not to press things of 
secondary importance, as if they were first and fore- 
most. If possible, let us try to communicate Christ 
first, and all other truth, important as it is in con- 
nection with Him, will then take its right place. 
We ought, I think, to tolerate the expression of 
difference of opinion, whether on political or social 
or religious subjects. A Christian minister's business 
in his visits is to bring souls to Christ. He does not 
go to find fault with everybody else, and to "deal 
damnation round the land on each he thinks God's 
foe." 

Two objections here arise before me, about which 
it is necessary to give a passing word. Some will 
say, perhaps, that such pastoral visitation as I have 
recommended is out of the question, that it would 
leave no time for reading, or the composition of 
sermons. My answer is, that such pastoral visitation 
as I speak of gets material together for the most 



324 HOMILETICAL LEG TURKS, [Lect. XIII. 

telling and appropriate sermons that can be preached. 
If the plan recommended be followed, of making 
short digests of conversation as soon as possible after 
an interview, it will be found very frequently that 
suggestions arise in connection with God's Word, 
which give thoughts for a sermon which may be 
composed under the influence of those thoughts, and 
which will prove to be a w r ord in season to many of 
our congregation. I believe, moreover, that the study 
of God's Word and the study of the human heart go 
together. In the human heart you have the inti- 
mation of the disease, so to speak ; in the study of 
Gods Word you have the pharmacopoeia which gives 
the remedy. 

Another objection is, that frequent Church ser- 
vices, where they exist, hinder pastoral visitation. I 
cannot say that I think this need be the case. I am 
not about to enter upon the question whether in all 
cases frequent services are desirable, nor upon the 
question as to what constitutes "a reasonable hin- 
drance " to them. But supposing that the circum- 
stances of a clergyman's parish are such that there 
are some persons who wish to avail themselves of 
the opportunities of frequently meeting together in 
the house of prayer for a short time, I have always 
thought that half an hour spent in prayer, and in the 
reading of God's Word, would prove to be anything 
but unprofitable in furnishing Christian thoughts for 



Lect. XIII.] PASTORAL VISITATION. 325 

the subsequent duty of pastoral visitation. Some 
verse of the Psalms, some verse of the Lesson, some 
part ol the Prayers, coming home with new light 
and energy, gives the clergyman thoughts which he 
carries about with him during the day, and which are 
found to be just what he needs in cases that come 
before him for special advice. 

The great permanent object, however, in all that 
we have to do in connection with pastoral visitation 
must not be lost sight of. It is simply this — to be 
a witness for Christ and His truth. An effective 
pastor must be a pastor everywhere, to everybody, 
and always. He must, if he be wise, seek to win 
souls. If this be borne in mind, it will put in their 
right place all questions of minor matters, such as 
recreation, athletics, rinks, boats, and spelling bees. > 
The due consideration of the object of his calling 
will help him to guard against the possible danger 
of forgetting his character as a clergyman; whilst, 
in addition to this, he will be further helped if he 
bring before God every night all the cases of those 
with whom he has been brought into contact during 
the day. The habit of praying for persons with 
whom one has been brought in contact is to be 
encouraged, because it is of great advantage to 
ourselves, as well as a help, to the work of pastoral 
visitation. 

All this, however, necessitates the conclusion that 



326 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIII. 

the work can be properly appreciated only when we 
view it with reference to immortal souls, their danger 
their value, their redemption ; with reference to the 
judgment to come, and to the final acceptance of 
our heavenly Master. The old true saying comes 
rushing to the mind, "Like people, like priest." 
We ought to be first and foremost in advancing 
or carrying out Christian work ; but if any of us 
would do this, he must be himself a " man of God." 
By this I mean he must be one like Elijah, who 
stood in the presence of God, and therefore feared 
not the face of man ; or like Enoch, who " walked 
with God,'' and so one who can bear testimony 
against the ungodly deeds of the generation with 
which he has to do; or like St. Paul, whose heart's 
desire and prayer to God for even blinded and re- 
jecting Israel was that they might be saved ; or like 
Antipas, Christ's faithful witness, of whom his Lord 
makes honourable mention. If we are not seeking 
in some sense like this to be "a man of God," some 
part of our work will be neglected ; and if so, no 
one can fully prove himself " a minister of Christ." 
A fearful thing it is for the Master's message to 
reach one who can give no satisfactory answer to 
the question, "Where is thy flock, thy beautiful 
flock ? " 

Let me conclude with a word of encouragement to 
younger clergymen. The ministry of the gospel of 



Lect. XI II.] PASTORAL VISITATION. 327 

Christ leads us to a position that is the most happy, 
the most honourable, and the most useful that can 
possibly be held on this side the grave. We are 
always reminded by the very work we do lor Chnsc, 
that it cannot be done efficiently or comfortably, 
unless we keep in daily communion with our heavenly 
Master. I am sure this is an honour and a privilege 
that cannot be over-stated. 

In connection with it let me say that we have 
reason to be thankful that God has called us to be 
ministers of the reformed Church of England. We 
have the catholic truth that was once for all delivered 
to the saints, and because catholic, therefore antago- 
nistic to all that has since sprung up in contradic- 
tion to that ancient truth. No greater wish can 
I express for my younger brethren than that the 
longer they live the more may they be attached to 
that Scriptural truth that we have in our English 
Church. 

One word more. It is that our hope for the future 
is bright and blessed and glorious. We may not 
always see the result of our labours here ; for we 
may be amongst those who sow the seed — " One 
soweth and another reapeth ; " but the day is coming 
when it will be seen that he who has been sowing 
in faith will join with him who reaps with thankful- 
ness, and will doubtless come again with joy, bringing 
his sheaves with him. 



328 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XIII. 

At the conclusion of the address the following ques- 
tio7is were put to and answered by the lecturer : — 

Question. — In visiting the poor, is it desirable to 
avail oneself of the several compendiums that have 
been published of late years, especially with reference 
to choosing beforehand what should be read ? or is 
it better to leave things to the inspiration of the 
moment ? 

Answer. — My own opinion decidedly would be that 
you should read the compendium before you go, and 
judge whether what you read is likely to interest the 
person whom you visit. It is quite possible to be 
reading when there is no listening, and therefore I 
should judge rather by the interest of the patient 
whether the reading of the compendium or speaking 
on the subject previously read be the more desirable. 

Question. — How can we best deal with Roman 
Catholics, Jews, and infidels, and those who refuse 
our ministrations ? 

Answer. — If a Jew or any other would listen to 
me, I should not at first enter upon a discussion of 
disputed things, but I should try to impress the 
thought that as sinners they need a Saviour; and 
then that that Saviour is the Lord Jesus Christ. As 
to those who will not receive us, we cannot force 
ourselves upon them ; but I should not give up 
easily. I would rather say, If at first you do not 
succeed, "try, try, and try again." The every-day 



Lect. XIII.] PASTORAL VISITATION. 329 

courtesies of life have their uses in such cases. For 
instance, you might meet them in the street, and 
bid them "Good morning/' — and I have noticed 
that even raising the hat and paying such-like civili- 
ties has sometimes a very softening and conciliating 
effect. Therefore I should persevere, without unduly 
pressing myself upon them, but at the same time 
never letting slip an opportunity of acting upon their 
better feelings, in the hope that I might be able to 
allure them into the path of truth and salvation. 

Question. — What course is it desirable to pursue in 
respect of visiting public-houses, into which it might 
look suspicious for a clergyman to enter ? 

Answer. — I should suggest that our Lord's plan be 
borne in mind, "two and two." Let the clergyman 
take some one with him. The same remark would 
hold when sent for to visit houses of ill fame. With 
public-houses, my own experience has been that I 
have found the greatest willingness on the part of 
the publicans to listen to pastoral advice ; much 
greater than, previous to experience, I should have 
supposed. I certainly think that public-houses should 
be visited, but this requires to be done with discretion. 

Question. — Is it justifiable, under any circumstances, 
not to visit a house in which there is a case of in- 
fectious disease ? 

Answer. — This is a matter in which, I think, the 
prudence of a medical man is required ; and not only 



330 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIII. 

so, but one in which the duty of a medical man has 
to be performed. There are, however, two ways 
of doing this duty. There is a way of doing it 
rashly, and there is a way of doing it prudently. 
Let me draw an instance from actual life. Suppose 
a clergyman has been preaching or giving a lecture, 
and at the close of the day, when his strength is 
exhausted, and when perhaps he has but little food 
on his stomach, he is called out to visit a case of 
small-pox. Duty bids him go, but he must do it 
discreetly. Let him go home first, and partake of 
food, and also get a little rest; and then, after using 
such precautions as are advisable, let him go forth be- 
lieving that the path of duty will be the path of safety. 

Question. — Would you recommend that servants, 
whether male or female, be visited at the same time 
as their masters and mistresses ? 

Answer. — It is hardly possible to lay down a rule 
in order to meet this question. Of course you have 
no right to interfere with the servants' work ; and to 
visit and call upon the servants without the consent 
of the master or mistress would be to introduce 
domestic discord. In large establishments permission 
may sometimes be obtained for an address in the 
servants'-hall ; and we should be on the look-out 
for opportunities to say a word to servants, as for 
instance when they open the door for us on our entry 
or leaving. Another plan is to have a special service 



Lect.XIIL] PASTORAL VISITATION. 331 

in the church for servants. Coachmen, footmen, and 
persons of that class, come to such a service, and 
they come with great cheerfulness. I know of such a 
service which answers well, and is held for half an 
hour every Sunday evening at nine o'clock for coach- 
men, footmen, and others. 

Question. — Do you think it wise generally to make 
use of the Service for the Visitation of the Sick ? 
It would appear likely to bring persons' sins to 
remembrance, and to lead them to confess them to 
God. It also brings prominently forward the advisa- 
bility of persons making their will. 

Answer. — The question of making the will is a 
somewhat delicate subject for a clergyman to broach, 
especially if he be a young man ; but advantage 
may often be taken to speak of the advisability of 
providing for one's family, and arranging matters in 
the time of health, so as to give as little anxiety and 
trouble as possible to survivors. With regard to 
the Service for the Visitation of the Sick, it is not 
required to be used by those licensed to preach ; 
but at the same time I believe that the more we 
enter into the spirit of that service, without tying 
ourselves to the letter of it, the more efficient will 
our visitation be. I would not omit even the spirit 
of the opening sentence, though I might not audibly 
utter the words — " Peace be to this house, and all 
that dwell in it." 



pastoral <§mlhxg toiijr jfnbib&wals. 

BY THE REVEREND WILLIAM WALSIIAM HOW, M.A., HONORARY 
CANON OF ST. ASAPH, RURAL DEAN, RECTOR OF WHIT- 
TINGTON, SALOP, AND EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE 
BISHOP OF LICHFIELD. 



XIV. 

PASTORAL DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. 



K 



THE pastoral dealing with individuals is a subject 
very closely akin to homiletics, because in truth 
it is the bringing down into particulars what preach- 
ing deals with in generals. And this relation between 
homiletics and pastoral dealing with souls may be 
very well illustrated by a quaint simile of Hammond, 
which, I believe, he borrowed from Quintilian. He 
is contrasting the two modes of teaching — namely, 
preaching, and instructing individuals— and he asks 
this question : Supposing you had a number of 
narrow-necked vessels to fill with water (and which 
of us is not a narrow-necked vessel ? he asks in a 
parenthesis), would they be best filled by arranging 
them in a large room, and throwing ever so many 
buckets full of water over them, or by pouring a little'" 
into the mouth of each ? Indeed, the object that 
these two branches of our work have in view is the 
same. It is just the pouring in of the water of life 
into these narrow-necked vessels that we have every- 
where to deal with. And let us for one moment 



336 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV. 

think a little more of the relation between the two 
branches of our work. Surely the topics are the same 
for both — only treated differently. And yet I am 
rather disposed to ask why they should be treated 
differently. I think we lose a good deal of power in 
our sermons by being too general. I believe that we 
should do more if we dealt more with the concrete 
and less with the abstract ; if we brought down 
generals as much as possible into particulars. The 
majority of uneducated minds are lost when they 
get among abstractions and general truths. We 
want to deal with duties and sins as we find them in 
common life, whether we are preaching to numbers 
or speaking to individuals. We want to give ex- 
amples of the various things we speak of. We want 
to be very minute. The mind has to deal with the 

* smallest things first, before it can deal with the 
\ abstract, before it can generalize, before it can make 
- inductions. If we deal only with general truths in 

our sermons, I am quite sure that very few of the 

* people present will say, " That was meant for me." 
But if we speak of particulars, and come down to the 
concrete, and put the case just in the shape in which 
people encounter it in their every-day life, there will 
be many of the congregation who will say, "That 
was meant for me," although it is perfectly plain 
that the general truth, in reality, covered ten times 
as many cases as the particular instance. Only it 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. 337 

soared above them. It was on a different plane, 
and so did not touch them. Whereas, when you 
get among the particulars of daily life, they know 
where you are. People live in the concrete, and not 
in the abstract. Just take an instance — for which I 
must acknowledge my indebtedness to Canon Furse. 
Suppose there comes to a congregation a preacher 
who takes for his subject Jealousy. He descants 
very eloquently upon the nature of jealousy ; he 
explains its meaning ; he tells how in Holy Scripture 
this sin is denounced ; he points out how it differs 
from envy ; and so on. The people will listen, and 
think it is all very good and all very true, but 
probably not one will say, "That just fits me." But 
let another preacher come. He shall not attempt to 
differentiate jealousy from other sins, or to discourse 
upon its nature or its heinousness. He shall come 
at once down to the practical, and he shall say, " See 
what a sad evil this jealousy is in our daily life. 
Now, here are two sisters. They have been brought 
up together ; they have had the same education ; 
they have slept in the same room ; they have the 
same religious opinions, the same tastes and pursuits; 
and yet there is something which has got between 
them. There is no perfect openness and frankness 
and freedom between them. There is something 
wrong, perhaps on one side, perhaps on both. Now, 
if these girls were to be quite honest with themselves, 

22 



338 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV, 

and to confess the actual truth, might they not each 
have to say something like this, i I am sure they love 
my sister better than they love me ; so I cannot love 
her'? Well, that is jealousy." Ten to one, there 
would be some girl in the congregation who would 
say " That was meant for me." Hence you see the 
close connection between preaching and pastoral 
dealing with individuals, and that they are really 
branches of the same great work. So I am not quite 
sure whether I was right in saying, that though the 
topics are the same in both, the treatment is different. 
Possibly the treatment ought not to be very different. 

Now, this pastoral dealing with souls is a tre- 
mendous work. If preaching is a very hard and 
very responsible work, how much more is this ! 
In preaching, at any rate, each person is left to 
apply our words to his own heart ; but here we 
have ourselves to make the application. Gregory 
the Great calls this dealing with individual souls 
" Ars artium" ; and what tact, what wisdom, what 
patience, what love, what tenderness does it require ! 
We may well say, u Who is sufficient for these 
things ? " 

One can hardly avoid, when dealing with this 
matter, mentioning the subject of private confession. 
But I am going to put that on one side. I wish this 
paper to be, not controversial, but practical ; and 
I think its title, " Pastoral Dealing with Individuals/' 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. 339 

will itself almost exclude this difficult question, and 
suggest rather the line of counsel and direction, to 
which therefore I will confine myself 

Well, the pastor must be a man whom his 
parishioners will consult in their difficulties. I 
don't say at once, or freely, because people are very 
shy, and have got very much out of the habit of 
opening their minds to their pastors. Still, the 
pastor ought to be a man whom his people will 
consult. Souls are very weak ; souls have sad, 
sad troubles ; souls are perplexed on all sides by 
all manner of doubts and difficulties ; and we 
ought to be able to help them. But we shall not 
help them unless we ourselves know something of 
the things in. which we try to help them. Unless 
we ourselves have wrestled with their difficulties, 
and know how to overcome them, I don't think 
we shall help much. I know you will forgive me 
for saying it — Unless we ourselves have taken our 
own sins, and laid them at the foot of the Cross 
of Jesus, and have found pardon and mercy there, 
unless we know surely what the Lord hath done 
for our own souls, we may have all the will in 
the world to help, but I do not think we shall do 
much. But if you are, and are felt to be, a man 
whom your people can trust — one who has worked 
out some of the hard problems which perplex 
them for himself — one who has learnt in his own 



340 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV. 

experience the things they are longing to know 
about — then there will not be lack of opportunities. 
Occasions will be abundant enough in our parishes. 
I do not say that we shall not have to seek for 
them, but our pastoral visits will supply us with 
plenty. And then there is the sick bed, when God 
seems to open the door for us, and it is our own 
fault if we fail to enter in. And oh ! what thank- 
fulness will overflow the heart, and light up the 
eye, if we are enabled sometimes to bring joy and 
peace and comfort to the poor perplexed, struggling, 
fainting souls, which lie hidden everywhere under 
the dull, commonplace, uninteresting aspect of the 
every-day life of men ! 

Perhaps I could not help in this matter better 
than by telling in detail something of my own 
experience, and suggesting a number of topics drawn 
from the work that I have been permitted to do in 
parochial missions, when we seem to get in a single 
week or eight days more than the experience of 
a year. It may help others, perhaps, if I bring 
forward some of the difficulties that have been 
brought before me, and if I try to describe how I 
should deal with them. 

Among these difficulties, first of all I must name 
Scepticism. It is eating its way into all ranks of 
society. Not only clever and worldly men, but 
women, even religious women — those in whom it is 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. 341 

least suspected by their families or their friends, — 
they come to us with their sad, sad tale of trouble 
and doubt. Sometimes it is all very vague and 
misty ; sometimes it centres in some special diffi- 
culty, perhaps connected with the Bible, or with 
science, or with God's dealings with man. Generally 
it has been caused by reading books suggestive of 
sceptical difficulties, or by the talk of clever men. 
I have had more experience of scepticism in the 
case of women than of men — not because it is more 
frequent with women than with men (for no doubt 
it is just the reverse), but because men are more 
familiar with* the subject, and so think less of it> 
while women have been brought up generally so 
guardedly that the subject comes to them with more 
novelty, and so startles and affrights them. Men too 
often acquiesce in a state of doubt, or, at any rate, 
in a state of hazy half-belief, which has no grasp 
upon the truth, and little power over the life. They 
look on the whole matter as a subject too difficult 
for them, and so better put on one side. But, alas ! 
there are some who welcome scepticism. They try 
not to believe, because they are afraid to believe. 
Their lives are such that they would be very thankful 
to suppose that there were no God, no judgment 
to come, no heaven, and no hell. Now let me for 
one moment pause to consider how to deal with 
one who comes to you under these circumstances. 



342 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV. 

We shall not have many such, but we may be brought 
into contact with one of these too willing doubters. 
I will tell a story about such a case. In a mission 
in the north of England there were two mission 
clergymen who conducted it, the one being a man 
of more experience and ability than the other. One 
day a man came to the vestry, and saw the assistant 

missioner there, and asked if he could see Mr. . 

He was told that he was not there at that time ; 
and when the assistant missioner asked if he could 
not help him, the man said No, he particularly wished 

to put a few questions to Mr. , as he had some 

little difficulties he should like to see if he could 
explain. Upon being questioned, he acknowledged 
that he did not believe much in the Bible. The 
young clergyman then said, " I am not going to 
talk to you about your difficulties, because I am 
not clever enough to handle them, and so it would 
be very wrong of me to do so. But will you 
allow me to say one little word before you go out 
of the room ? You must forgive me for saying it. 
Is there nothing in your secret life that has been 
the source of this unbelief?" The man left the 
room making some evasive answer. On the next 
day he came again at the same time. " I am sorry 
you have come at the same time to-day again," said 

the younger missioner, " for Mr. is not here. 

As I told you yesterday, he is always away at this 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. 343 

time." "But," said the man, "I want to see j/ou! . 
" Why, what do you want with me ? I told you I 
yesterday I could not answer your questions. "Yes, 
I know that ; but you said something to me about 
my life just as I was leaving the vestry. I have 
led a very bad life, and I believe that is just the 
truth of it." They talked together, and had a long 
interview, and the inquirer was completely broken 
down with sorrow and shame at his sin. And that 
man is now an earnest communicant of the Church. 
And he told his own clergyman that if that young 
man had attempted to argue with him he should 
have been an unbeliever still. The lesson of such 
a story as that is too plain to need pointing out. 

But now, what shall we say of those who doubt 
and yet shudder at their doubts ? What shall we say 
of those whose faith is shaken, but who long to feel 
the ground firm under their feet once more ? of those 
over whose, souls there hangs a dreadful cloud of 
uncertainty, but yet who long for the blessed light of 
heaven to shine through ? There is much (oh, how 
much !) to be said of such. But the first thing I would 
say is this—- they must be dealt with very lovingly, 
very gently, very sympathisingly. If we begin by 
denouncing their doubts as wicked temptations of 
the devil, which can lead to nothing but eternal 
death (though indeed this may be most true)— if we 
begin by telling them their doubts are to be looked 



344 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV. 

upon as deadly sins, to be confessed and repented of — 
we shall only repel and throw them back upon them- 
selves, and increase the very evil we would remove. 
We must speak of these things as being the very 
bitterest and the very hardest trials that men have to 
bear. We must say, "My poor friend, this is a wound 
that wants salve to heal it, but let me try to help you, 
if I can. I know how heavy is your burden, and I 
would most thankfully try to lighten it." 

I will suggest a few topics which may be useful in 
dealing with such cases — I mean cases of unwilling 
doubt. 

1. Our profound ignorance. We may show the 
doubter how very very little we know of the mysteries 
of our own being,— -about such things as the nature 
of life, the union between spirit and matter, and all 
such questions. Is it then to be supposed that we 
should find no difficulty in dealing with the nature 
of God and all the hidden mysteries of the unseen 
world ? 

2. We may press upon one thus troubled the 
conclusions of men of the highest ability and attain- 
ments, who have grappled with these difficulties and 
have come out triumphant. You can point out this 
and that man of the largest grasp upon great scientific 
questions, who has a calm undoubting faith. 

3. The nature of the subject, which does not admit 
of mathematical demonstration. It is God's will that 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. 345 

our faith should rest upon something less than mathe- 
matical demonstration — that we should be content 
with moral proofs. Nay, to look for certainty in 
these things is simply to abolish the province of 
faith. 

4. You have the evidence of the reality of religion 
in the power of the Holy Spirit in the heart of man. 
" If any man will do (0e\ei iroieiv) His will, he shall 
know of the doctrine whether it be of God." It is 
that triumph over sin in the soul, that power which 
can make a man what nothing else can make him, 
which will enable him to fight against and overcome 
the deadliest temptations, which can give him victory 
over self; it is this which is to him who knows it the 
surest proof of the reality of religion. 

5. One may urge the possibility of error in the way 
of looking at the things about which a doubt is enter- 
tained — such things as the relation between science 
and religion, and so on. We may show that we may 
be reading either of God's handwritings wrongly. 
God teaches us by two books — the book of Nature 
and the book of Revelation. We have read the 
latter book wrongly sometimes, and have had to 
correct our views by the aid of the former ; and we 
must not be staggered if we have to correct some 
of our interpretations still. 

Lastly, we may say, Wait ; and then do your best; 
fight on even in the dark ; and remember the story 



H 



346 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV. 

of the ten lepers. u As they went, they were healed." 
In the simple path of obedience the blessing came. 

It may be useful to mention a few books, which 
have been found of service. The following have 
been used with profit : — Drew's " Reasons of Faith," 
Titcomb's " Cautions for Doubters/' Jellett's " Moral 
Difficulties of the Old Testament." I think that 
Mr. Heygate's " Why I am a Christian " is especially 
suited to young men of fair education, such as trades- 
men's assistants, clerks, etc., who have been tempted 
to unbelief by the silly talk of their companions, and 
who perhaps have no very definite notions of their 
own. There are some minds for which the somewhat 
harder reading of Butler's "Analogy," or even of 
such a book as " The Unseen Universe," may be very 
useful ; but I am quite sure there a great many more 
who want to read books not even touching the 
subject of their doubts. A misty sceptic, who hardly 
knows whether he believes or not, may be very well 
recommended to read such a book as Goulburn's 
" Personal Religion," or the biography of any really 
holy man. What you want to show such a man to 
make him believe is often simply the power of religion 
in the life of man. 

Let me give one other illustration. A friend o** 
mine went, during a mission, to address a number of 
men in a large factory. At the end of the address 
a workman got up and asked if he might propose a 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS, 347 

vote. Permission was readily given, and he then 
proposed that this gentleman should never come 
there to speak to them again. Another workman 
seconded it, and the vote was carried by a large 
majority. The clergyman afterwards sought out the 
man who proposed the adverse vote, and found him 
a professed unbeliever, as he had anticipated. He, 
however, gladly agreed to a private interview. In 
this interview the man wished to propound his 
difficulties, and to ask questions, but the clergyman 
resolutely refused, and addressed him in words of 
this sort : " I do not pretend to be able to explain all 
difficulties, and I shall not try. There are sure to be 
difficulties to the last. But I want you to believe the 
power of the Holy Spirit in the heart of man. You 
don't believe it ? " " No, I don't/' he answered ; " I 
don't believe anything of the sort." The man was 
very impatient, and would hardly listen to him ta 
first. However, he told him of men who had learned 
to conquer their passions, who had become masters 
of themselves, who had become, what no power in 
themselves could make them, pure and holy and 
Christ-like. His lessons were all of the simple in- 
stances of the Holy Spirit's power to be found among 
men in every-day life. And for several interviews he 
pursued the same line, insisting on the power of 
religion and the beauty and happiness of a holy 
life. At last the man was convinced, and entirely 



348 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XIV. 

yielded himself to that power in which he had at 
first professed to disbelieve, and he became a regular 
communicant. 

Another very frequent trouble of souls is the sense 
of failure in the battle against some besetting sin. 
The commonest sins are sins of impurity among 
men, and of temper and tongue among women. 
People come to one, and say, " I don't get on. I do 
try, but my sins are just as bad as ever. I resolve to 
do better. But it is no use." Let me suggest some 
considerations in dealing with such souls. First of 
all, there are those of a general nature. What I 
should say myself to one coming to me under this 
sense of failure would be something like this : My 
friend, your first duty is to fight, not to conquer. It 
may be that you will never quite conquer this sin on 
this side of the grave, but fight on. Remember, to 
fight without conquering is a far nobler and grander 
thing than to conquer without fighting. It is pride 
that won't bear defeat. You don't like to be humbled. 
You don't like to find out what a weak, poor creature 
you are. Then, if you gave up, and never fought 
any more, where would you be driven to ? Can you 
tell what victories the enemy would gain over you ? 
Then, remember that a sentry placed in a post of 
great danger, attacked on all sides, and holding his 
position because his captain has placed him there, is 
no less good a soldier — perhaps a better — than he 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. 349 

who gallops in the charge of final victory. Again, ^ 
efforts are alv/ays successes in the spiritual life. It 
is the struggle, the battle, which is the great thing 
for the soul — not, of necessity, the conquest. Once j 
more, do be content to be always a beginner. I think 
that that expression we meet with in more than one 
of the Epistles of St. Ignatius, when he was being 
carried to the lions at Rome, is very touching. The 
aged saint on his way to martyrdom, his warfare ac- 
complished, the crown all but in his grasp, exclaims, 
u Now I am beginning to be a disciple/' We must 
be content to be beginners ; yes, we clergy even. 

I often quote to those who are troubled at their 
frequent failures a short sentence of Faber. I am 
not sure of the exact words, but they are to this 
effect : " No soul was ever lost because its fresh 
beginnings broke down, but thousands of souls 
have been lost because they would not make fresh 
beginnings." And there is another very beautiful 
sentence from the same writer, in the same chapter. 
(I am quoting now from a very curious book — 
" Notes Spiritual and Doctrinal/' a posthumous 
work of Faber, full of the rankest Romanism and 
the most startling irreverences, but full also of won- 
derfully suggestive passages.) It runs in words like 
these : " When ail things are known, perhaps it will 
be found that many a saintly life has been nothing 
else than an entanglement of generous oeginnin&s!' 



35o HOMU.ETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV. 

Now about dealing with particular sins. Take 
temper. It Is a very common thing to hear people 
say, " I don't conquer my temper a bit. Try as I 
may, I am always falling." We may suggest a few 
very simple rules, (i) Never brood over past mis- 
understandings. Some temperaments are specially 
tempted to dwell upon unpleasant scenes, and to 
go over them again and again. But that which 
is recalled is not the simple scene as it occurred. 
They exaggerate it, and imagine what might have 
been said on either side, and invent bitter and 
cutting retorts, and so make up a quarrel ten times 
greater than the original one was, aggravating in 
their own mind all those feelings of irritation which 
had been bad enough before. (2) Resolve and 
force yourself to express sorrow as quickly as 
you can when you have given way to temper. 
(3) Determine rather to bite your tongue than to 
speak when you are angry. (4) Get down on your 
knees as soon as you can. 

Now take impurity. Many sins must be looked 
full in the face. This sin must be run away from. 
Flight is the only safety. Flight first. Then occu- 
pation — having always something to interest you. 
Then self-denial, the avoidance of all that is indul- 
gent to the flesh, fasting, and of course instant 
prayer, as in the former case. I suppose there is 
nothing so hard for a man to do as, when his whole 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. y>\ 

soul is trembling from the assault of this sin, to turn 
and face God, It is almost beyond our power at 
times, but it is the only safety. Press this upon 
the tempted — that their only strength is to look 
straight up to God. In His presence they are safe. 

The next topic I would mention is difficulty in 
prayer. People have terrible difficulties about their 
prayers. In the London Mission I remember a 
gentleman coming to the vestry to me to ask 
my advice. "My life," he said, "has been a great 
failure. I have failed in many things. I have 
lost property, relations, friends. I have been a 
disappointed man. But there was one thing I 
had hoped for. I had hoped to find happiness 
in religion. But I am in despair about this. I 
have prayed, prayed earnestly. But my prayers 
don't seem to be answered. Is prayer a failure ? " 
He asked this question with intense earnestness and 
anxiety. Of course I did all I could to encourage 
him. But thousands and thousands of souls are 
troubled about prayer. They find that they are cold 
and dead and apathetic in their prayers. Such souls 
often long for help. Every individual case requires 
its own mode of treatment ; but, as all clergymen 
cannot but be familiar with such cases, I will not 
enter into details. I should like, however, to name 
a little selection of Faber's hymns, published by 
Isbister, in which are three hymns upon Distractions, 



352 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV. 

Dryness, and Sweetness in Prayer. The first two 
of these deal with the two great difficulties of the 
subject, and they are so full of beauty, that I really 
cannot help naming them, and saying how very 
helpful they will often be found. 

And now I come to my last subject — which is, 
indeed, cognate with the preceding — namely, a 
general want of love towards God. This is one of 
the very commonest distresses of the soul : " I can- 
not love God," " I don't love God," and " I don't feel 
God's love to me." It is a very sad distress, and one 
we have continually to deal with. Now, it is always 
very difficult to deal with the feelings, both because 
the feelings are so much less under our command 
than the actions, and also because they are so 
deceitful and illusory. But people often say, " I 
can love human beings, but I cannot love God. I 
can pray for a dying friend or relative ; but when 
I come to pray for myself, I feel so cold and dry." 
I had such a case not long ago. A mother came 
to me, saying she was very much distressed about 
the state of her soul. She loved her child. She 
could die for it. But she did not believe that she 
loved God at all. She did not feel anything of 
that warmth for God that she did for her child. 
She feared she was making her child her idol. I 
said, Of course it was possible to do so ; but I 
pointed out to her that she could not expect to 



Lect. XIV.] DEALING WITH INDIVIDUALS. 353 

love God with her mother's love. Her mother's 
love was not given her in order that she might 
love God with it, but her child ; and it could not 
be expected that love for God should be the same 
in its manifestation as love for a fellow-creature. 
Love towards God must be, from the very nature 
of things, a calmer and more unimpassioned feeling. 
But it is not on that account less real. And I am 
sure that it is necessary to point this out to our 
people, because they believe they ought to feel 
towards God just as they do towards persons 
around them — which is really not God's will. It 
often helps one to think of our Lord's words to 
St. Peter at the sea of Galilee, when he had made 
his threefold confession of love. I suppose the 
Apostle scarcely knew whether he dared to say, 
"I do love Thee," after what had passed. Yet he 
left it to Him who knew all things. He could read 
his heart, and see that some love still lingered there. 
But what does Jesus say ? "Feed my lambs," " Feed 
my sheep " : as though He meant, " Do not vex 
yourself by doubts and questionings as to the depth 
and warmth of your love, but act as if you loved. 
Show your love by your life." And may it not 
be that we lose somewhat of joy and peace and 
freedom by being too introspective? I do think it 
is one of the tendencies of these days. We are 
always prying into our own hearts' depths. In early 

23 



354 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIV. 

times I think religion had far more of the objective 
about it. Those were days when they could com- 
pose such a hymn as the "Te Deum." In these 
days our hymns deal with all the sentimental feelings 
of the heart. We are always looking inwards, We 
have lost much of that grand triumphant outward 
and upward look of the soul, when it grasped with 
* such a strength of faith the great eternal verities of 
the world unseen. Yet I believe that the great 
revival of worship in our churches now is a great 
step towards a return to the brightness of belief 
which marked the Christians of those early times. 
And I believe that what we should say to many 
persons, when very sorely troubled about their own 
hearts, is this : " You are sitting in a dark, cold, 
ill-furnished, and sordid chamber, and so long as 
you keep gazing on the dull dir*y walls you will 
not see much to comfort you. Rise and go to the 
window, and behold God's sunshine streaming broadly 
and brightly over field and hill That is more 
likely to cheer you/' Yes, we want the outward 
look. We want to bid the poor weary soul look up 
to the smile of Jesus. I could almost fancy He 
would speak to many such an one, if only they 
would listen, and say, i( O weary, sin-burdened ones, 
gaze no more upon your own sin-stained hearts. 
You will find little comfort there. But lift up the 
eye of faith. Look unto Me, and be ye saved. ' " 



Cnifagc §£e£iu«s. 



BY THE RIGHT REVEREND WILLIAM PAKENHAM WALSH, D.D., 
BISHOP OF OSSORY, FERNS, AND LEIGHLIN. 



XV. 

COTTAGE LECTURES. 

IT might seem, at first sight, as if the subject 
chosen for this paper were of too trivial a cha- 
racter to introduce it to notice ; but the experience 
of many will doubtless bear me out when I say 
that cottage lectures can be made a most effectual 
aid to pastoral work, and that they furnish a very 
simple but valuable instrumentality for bringing 
Divine truth in a familiar and practical way before 
the people committed to our charge. Next to the 
services of our Church, and as both supplementary 
to them and preparatory for them, they have been 
used with great advantage, not merely in country 
districts, to which they might seem more specially 
suited, but even in large towns and cities, where 
it is more difficult to reach our increasing popula- 
tion. The Church Homiletical Society, which has 
done so much already towards elevating the tone 
of the pulpit, may therefore well condescend to 
notice "Cottage Lectures" — concerning which, how- 
ever, I regret that the following observations have 



358 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XV 

little to commend them except the pastoral experi- 
ence of some thirty years, acquired both in country 
and city work. 

Something may be said further on about the 
importance of cottage lectures to the younger clergy 
themselves, as affording an admirable field for the 
practice of extempore speaking, and thereby giving 
a facility for expressing their thoughts in language 
suited to the capacities of their more humble 
hearers ; but it is rather of the cottage lecture as 
a means of grace, and a portion of the parochial 
machinery, that we would first speak of it. It 
occupies a place midway between the conversation 
of the domiciliary visit and the more systematic 
teaching of the pulpit ; and should therefore com- 
bine much of what is familiar and personal in the 
one case, with something of what is more didactic 
and general in the other. 

A cottage lecture is spoiled, if it be nothing but 
a Sunday sermon preached on a week-day, in a 
house instead of in a chureh ; and it is worse than 
spoiled if it be only a roadside conversation trans- 
lated into the plural number for the benefit of some 
twenty people gathered together under some humble 
roof-tree. There should be in it enough of dignity 
to prevent the hearers from forgetting that it is a 
lecture, and there should be in it enough of familiarity 
to prevent them from supposing that it is just the 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 359 

same thing as a sermon. How to hit the happy \ 
mean must be rather a discovery evolved in the 
practice of every one who undertakes the task, 
than the mechanical result of observing any stated 
formula which a lecturer might lay down. 

If we endeavour, first of all, to realize the great 
object which the pastor should have in view — 
namely, the spiritual edification of those who are 
gathered to listen to his teaching — and in the next 
the special circumstances under which they are 
assembled, as well as the semi-domestic nature of 
the gathering, it will do more to guide us to a 
right use of the occasion than any set of formal 
rules. 

Will you allow an Irish clergyman to use the 
language of paradox with which he is so familiar 
in his own country, and to premise that a cottage 
lecture need not necessarily be held in a cottage at 
all ? There are occasions when the village school- 
room, or the parsonage kitchen, or the farmer's 
outhouse, may be more convenient ; but in a country 
parish, where a neat, tidy cottage can be had, it is 
much to be preferred. We are not tied down, how- 
ever, to place or circumstance in this matter. The 
most successful lecture which my memory recalls 
was delivered eight hundred feet under ground, to 
a number of miners, whom at the time it was 
impossible to reach in any other way ; but many 



360 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XV. 

of whom, owing to its continued influence, became 
afterwards regular attendants at the parish church. 
Another was held weekly in a city garret, which 
had to be reached by four flights of rickety stairs, 
and was initiated amidst the jeers and ribaldry of 
some who eventually attended it themselves. 

There is no reason why the cottage lecture should 
not have a more extensive sphere of operation than 
its name denotes. There are, however, a few con- 
siderations which, though apparently trifling, are of 
some importance in selecting your locality, especially 
in a country parish. 

Do not select a house too near the church. 
Indeed, one of the chief recommendations of a 
cottage lecture is that it affords an opportunity for 
worship and instruction to many who are old and 
feeble, or it may be who live so far distant from 
the church that they cannot always conveniently 
attend on Sundays, or who from various causes 
can only attend one service there in the week. 
And here allow me to observe, that with all my 
love for cottage lectures, I am satisfied that, in the 
hands of the clergyman, they will prove to be alto- 
gether, or at least very much of, a mistake, if they 
be not made subsidiary to the regular ministrations 
of the Church, and a supplement TO, instead of a 
substitute FOR, them. 

In large parishes there will always be a number 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 361 

of elderly people, as well as invalids and children, 
who cannot, even if they would, come regularly to 
the house of God ; and there may be others who 
make their distance from it an excuse for non- 
attendance. The location of the cottage lectures 
should have respect especially to these. You might 
perhaps have four cottage lectures in four different 
parts of the parish, spread over the four successive 
weeks of the month. By taking these constantly 
in rotation, the whole parish might be brought 
under the influence of this simple but effective 
machinery. 

Let no one damp your ardour about these lectures 
by telling you that the people will be so well con- 
tented with them that they will cease to- care for 
the more stated services of the Church. This is a 
subject on which an ounce of experience is worth 
a ton of theory ; and the experience of many years 
and of many pastors has put it beyond a doubt 
that, when properly and judiciously managed, the 
cottage lecture on the week-day is one of the best 
and surest methods of securing large and regular 
attendances at the parish church upon the Sunday; 
and — what is of still more importance — of preparing 
and training the congregation to receive the largest 
possible amount of profit in the intelligent appre- 
hension of our public services. 

Another important consideration, in fixing the 



362 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XV. 

habitat of your cottage lecture, is to see that the 
person in whose house it is to be statedly held is 
not objectionable to his neighbours. If possible, 
hold it in the house of a pious and consistent 
parishioner ; but, in addition to this, take care that 
he be popular, or, at all events, not unpopular, with 
his neighbours. A friend of niine was greatly 
puzzled to know why all his efforts to make a 
particular cottage lecture attractive most miserably 
failed, until at last he discovered that the old 
curmudgeon in whose house it was held, would 
never lend any of his agricultural implements to 
his fellow-tenants, but, on the contrary, displayed 
his cranky and selfish individuality towards them 
in all imaginable ways and upon all possible occa- 
sions. The venue was changed (as lawyers would 
say) to a philanthropic old farmer's in the next 
townland, and then the people had to sit on the 
beds, through lack of chairs and stools to accommo- 
date them. 

A point akin to this, but yet distinct from it, is 
that you should always sacrifice your own conveni- 
ence, both as regards time and place, to that of 
your flock. If walking a mile farther, even up to 
your ankles in mud, will bring you to a point more 
central for your people, go in for the mud, and put 
on stronger boots. 

So in like manner as regards the hour. The 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 363 

difference between six o'clock and seven o'clock in 
the evening may be vital as to your chance of 
securing a good attendance. The later hour may 
involve your walking home in the dark, and getting 
an hour later to your bed ; but if you are in earnest, 
and if moreover you are wise, you will prefer the 
risk of a stumble on the road to the certainty of 
being a stumbling-block to your own project. Where 
there are workmen, and more especially in the coun- 
try, you may be able to arrange that the time for 
your meeting should coincide with the latter half of 
their dinner-hour ; and I have known men willingly 
to give up that half-hour for this purpose. It will 
be better still if you can induce employers, whether 
in town or country, to give an additional half-hour 
to their employes once a week. There are very 
few who will refuse it, if the matter be judiciously 
set before them : and it helps to make the lecture 
popular. In cities and large towns you will generally 
find the evening the most convenient time ; and in 
any case it is not desirable to prolong the proceedings 
beyond half an hour. You may sometimes, however, 
append to them the meeting of a fellowship society, 
clothing club, or other parochial institution, and thus 
economize your own time and that of your people. 

When your hour and place of meeting are once 
fixed and known, be punctual in keeping to them. 
Set the example of punctuality ; and if on any 



364 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XV. 

occasion you are obliged to absent yourself, be 
sure either to provide a substitute, or else give such 
timely and sufficient notice as will prevent your 
little flock from gathering together only to meet 
with disappointment. One of the ablest and most 
ardent of my clerical acquaintance ruined a well- 
established cottage lecture in the parish of which 
he had the temporary charge, by being often late, 
always flurried, and sometimes absent altogether. 
It is no hindrance, however, but rather an advan- 
tage, to discontinue these lectures upon occasions 
for a month or two, especially if you are leaving 
home for a holiday. You can resume them with 
new vigour, and the very break in the sequence 
will add freshness to them when your people come 
together again. 

As to the best method of conducting these lectures, 
a certain amount of latitude must always be allowed, 
for circumstances will differ widely in different places. 
When you can have singing, it is well. Plain, honest, 
well-known tunes to good old familiar words will 
warm the heart, and pitch a keynote for the whole 
service that is to follow. Thank God, we are begin- 
ning to understand better than we did the value of 
hymnody in our religious services ; but there are 
times when any attempt at singing is ruinous to. all 
composure of mind, both in the pastor and the flock. 
You ought to be pretty sure, at least, of your leader 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 365 

before you venture upon giving out a hymn ; and, if 
possible, make some arrangement with such junior 
members of the congregation as can sing fairly, 
to be present and assist. In some places a short 
meeting for the practice of singing may be usefully 
held before your little congregation assembles. 

But whatever caution you may have to exercise 
regarding the psalmody, you have the conduct of 
the prayers in your own hands ; and here let me 
venture to say that, in my humble judgment; a 
judicious admixture of the liturgical and extem- 
porary is the best suited both to the occasion and 
circumstances which we are considering. You might 
either preface your lecture with a selection from the 
liturgy, and follow it up with a brief prayer con- 
structed out of the topics on which you have been 
enlarging, or else you might commingle the two 
styles of prayer, on each occasion, in such a way as 
to give warmth to what is precomposed, and solidity 
to what is extemporaneous. 

Your cottage lecture may train your people to a 
more thorough appreciation of our Church services, 
and a more hearty personal share in them. To this 
end use especially those parts of the liturgy which 
are responsive, and encourage your people to join 
in them. Let your flock, in these smaller gatherings, 
become accustomed to the sound of their own voices 
in united prayer and praise, and they will more 



2,66 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XV. 

readily, because with less timidity, employ them in 
the combined worship of the great congregation. I 
have found it very useful to circulate amongst my 
flock a small book of family prayer, compiled entirely 
from the Prayer Book, and containing much of the 
responsive parts. When once the people become 
accustomed to use it at home, they fall more easily 
into the way of using the liturgy in more public 
services. 

At the same time, I am not insensible to the value 
of special prayers, which seize, at special times, on 
special wants, special circumstances, and special sym- 
pathies amongst our people. It will add fire and 
fervour to these cottage services, if from a heart 
deeply alive to all your people's wants, and fervently 
impressed with the power and presence of a prayer- 
hearing and prayer- answering God, you sometimes 
lead your flock to pour out their hearts, with yours, 
in those earnest utterances which are dictated by 
present and peculiar needs. I do not mean that they 
should take any audible part in these prayers them- 
selves, but that your voice should give utterance to 
their wants. 

And now as to the subjects and the style of your 
lectures. As a rule, avoid isolated texts. However 
suited for occasional treatment in the pulpit, they are 
almost as much out of place in the cottage lecture 
as soliloquies would be in the pulpit. The best 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 367 

topic for a cottage lecture is a passage of Scripture, 
limited in range and extent, yet possessing a unity 
and completeness in itself. A Psalm (such as xxiii.), 
a prophecy (such as Isaiah liii.), a type (such as that 
of the brazen serpent), a parable, a miracle, a striking 
passage in Old or New Testament history, will arrest 
attention, and give you full opportunity, not only of 
explaining the portion in question, but of bringing out 
the saving truths of the gospel, and applying them, 
in all their cogency and variety, to the consciences 
of your hearers. 

Here, as well as in the pulpit, we have to deal 
with immortal souls. Here, as there, we have to dis- 
criminate between the impenitent and the believing. 
Here, as there, we have to follow the human heart 
through all its labyrinths of escape, and bring it face 
to face with the awakening, converting, sanctifying 
Word of God. Let Christ shine forth, therefore, in 
your cottage lectures, as the Saviour of sinners, as 
the poor man's Friend, as the Brother born for 
adversity. Let His grace stand forth in all its dis- 
tinctness, and His love in all its tenderness. For 
rough hearts or for smooth, for these uncultured 
rustics or rough artisans, as well as for the educated 
dwellers in mansions and in colleges, there is but 
one thing to meet human want and human misery, 
and it is the story of the Cross of Christ. Let us 
get into our own hearts a deep conviction of this 



368 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XV. 

truth ; let us realize it in our own inmost souls, and 
then go forth like the great Apostle, saying, " I am 
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ ; for it is the 
power of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth." 

But there are secondary uses of the cottage lecture, 
and in their place very important ones. Amongst 
these may be reckoned the opportunity which they 
afford of correcting common mistakes and misappre- 
hensions, both as regards the theory and practice of 
religion ; of answering or anticipating objections 
which your flock are likely to hear against Revela- 
tion on the one hand, or against our Church upon 
the other ; of explaining our public services, and 
giving them some idea of the nature and progress 
of missionary work. 

Beside this may be noted the seasonable occasions 
which they present for inculcating personal, domestic, 
and neighbourly duties, and pressing home in a thou- 
sand ways the influence of piety upon the small but 
not unimportant details of daily life. We might 
add to this the facilities which they afford for venti- 
lating any plan or project, on which it is desirable 
to sound or to educate the opinion of our people 
before embarking upon it. Thousands of excellent 
intentions and admirable plans have been frustrated 
or marred, simply because the people have not under- 
stood them before they were put into operation, 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 369 

or have never had an opportunity of hearing how 
objections to them may be answered. The cottage 
lecture often supplies a more suitable place and 
opportunity for obviating these misapprehensions 
than the pulpit does. In these and many other 
ways you will find the cottage lecture a source of 
strength to yourself, and a real blessing to your 
people. 

Much need not be said as to the style which is 
suitable for such homely gatherings. As already 
indicated, it should occupy a middle place between 
the familiarity of conversation and the dignity of the 
pulpit, neither losing itself in the unceremoniousness 
of the one, nor allowing itself to be absorbed in the 
stateliness of the other. If we keep our subject on 
the line of sacredness, we shall be guarded against 
the one extreme ; if we let it run in the groove of 
a kindly but sober familiarity, we shall be guarded ( 
against the other. 

But we must take care that in avoiding stiffness 
we do not run into vulgarity. In the first place, 
vulgarity never becomes either the truth, or him 
who preaches it ; and in the next, it is a great mis- 
take to think that the poorer classes relish vulgarity 
in their superiors. The very contrary is the case; 
they excessively dislike it, and are keenly alive to 
the perception of it, especially in matters where 
religion is concerned. 

24 



37° HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XV. 

Vulgarity is not required in order to make any 
sacred subject intelligible, or plain, or attractive. 
Even when we put off the silken robes of refined 
education, it is neither seemly nor decent that we 
should go amongst our people in rags. There are 
homely and substantial dresses to be supplied even 
from an academic wardrobe, and he who knows how 
to array himself with taste and becomingness in these 
can appear with advantage to himself, and — what is 
of infinitely more importance — with advantage to the 
truth, which it is his privilege, and ought to be his 
aim and glory, to commend to others. 

Let me add a few cautions. 

Let us not think, because our audiences at these 
lectures are of the humbler class, that therefore we 
need no preparation. Let us not give here, or else- 
where, unto God, of that which costs us nothing. 
Let us not be content to talk without having 
something really to say. The gift of tongue is a 
very different thing from the gift of tongues, though 
some act as if the former were to supply in this age 
the absence of the gift which distinguished the Pen- 
tecostal Church. My former Diocesan, Archbishop 
Whately, used to say that "some men thought 
they had a great command of language, when in 
reality it was language that had a great command 
of them." The more thoroughly we prepare, the 
more thoroughly we shall be understood, and the 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 371 

more likely we shall be, with God's help, to reap a 
blessing. 

Again, do not make the cottage lecture a substitute 
for house-to-house visitation. If you do not wish the 
people to put it in place of the Sunday service, do 
not set them the suggestively bad example of 
putting it in the place of your pastoral communi- 
cations with them in their individual homes. You 
may make it a most effective aid to this part of 
your work, whilst at the same time you can make 
this latter the secret power that will crowd your 
cottage lectures, and eventually your parish churches. 
When you miss the absentees from the cottage 
lecture it will give you an additional reason for 
making a call at their houses. When you call at 
their houses, common courtesy on their part can 
scarcely refrain from returning the compliment by 
going to your lecture. 

Evans, in his " Bishopric of Souls," has well 
observed that "to domestic visitation the lecture is 
a good second ; " but he adds, " The lecture will be 
essentially unprofitable to you, and unblessed, with- 
out the domestic visitation." And then he pointedly 
jnquires, "Were an enemy scattered over a country, 
two or three in every house, would you try to 
expel him by a general and distant cannonade 
from one large fixed battery, rather than go up and 
drive him out by detail from every hold ? " The 



372 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XV 

illustration needs no explanation to make it apply 
to my subject, and would only suffer by any attempt 
at it. 

This military phraseology reminds me of another 
advantage attaching to services such as we have 
been now considering. The cottage lecture is an 
" undress parade? and for that very .reason is more 
likely to be attended in the first instance by those 
who either dislike the preparation for a more regtilar 
service, or are unprovided with what they consider 
suitable uniform and equipments. 

Those who know anything;; of parochial work know 
how frequently the want of suitable clothing is 
alleged, sometimes as a reason, but still more fre- 
quently as an excuse, for not attending divine service 
on the Lord's day. The particular means of grace 
which we have been considering has this great ad- 
vantage, that it leaves no colour for such excuses, 
whether true or feigned. The peasant or the artizan 
may come in from his daily avocation, perhaps during 
part of his dinner-hour, in his working suit, and take 
his part without shame or offence at this homely 
gathering for divine worship ; and there, through 
the teaching of God's good Spirit, may learn such 
lessons, and come under such gracious influences, 
as shall make him less concerned about the raiment 
in which he may appear at the house % of God on 
earth, and more concerned about that robe of 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 373 

righteousness which admits to the marriage supper 
of the Lamb in heaven. 

Let me, in conclusion, say a few words with regard 
to the value of these cottage lectures as a training- 
school for the younger clergy. The Dean of Chester, 
in a lecture delivered before the Church Homi- 
letical Society, took an admirable and judicious view 
of the relative merits of written and extemporary 
sermons ; but he did not hesitate to tell the younger 
men that they should take pains to acquire the power 
of extemporaneous address ; and that they ought to 
persevere in it until they succeeded. Could there be 
a more suitable or natural school for such endeavours 
than that supplied by the cottage lecture ? There, 
amidst your own people, beloved and known — with 
their wants, and trials, and interests brought to the 
very door of your heart — with no dread of hostile 
criticism to alarm or repel you — with a ready 
sympathy in most cases waiting to meet your en- 
deavours for their good, — surely there is enough to 
unlock the most timid lips, and to loose the most 
stammering tongues. I remember a Fellow of our 
Dublin University, who went out early to a parish 
living, and whose first attempts at public speaking 
were an utter failure. He became in course of time 
one of the most finished and eloquent of our clerical 
orators, both on platform and in pulpit ; and that 
man confessed to me that he learned the art in 



374 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XV. 

his own barn, where he held a weekly service for 
his poorer parishioners, and tried, notwithstanding 
his nervousness and hesitancy, to speak to them 
the blessed truths of which his own heart was 
full. 

But there is still another way, and a most impor- 
tant one, in which the cottage lecture may materially 
influence the pulpit and the whole of your ministerial 
efficiency. From the very nature of the case, the 
style of your cottage lectures will necessarily be 
rather of the expository than of the topical character. 
Now, I have long felt that the great want of our 
: pulpit in the present day is the want of expository 
I teaching. There are times and occasions when 
I topical preaching is most telling and appropriate ; 
but as a rule the other mode seems to me the one 
that is most required, and most likely to have per- 
manent results. Just consider how many people 
there are in all our congregations who have no 
opportunity of becoming systematically acquainted 
with Bible teaching, except through our ministrations, 
— how many there are who do not and cannot read 
the Scriptures for themselves, — how many there are 
who never see a commentary or hear an explanation 
of Divine truth, save what they hear from the pulpit. 
Is it not of the utmost importance to widen their 
acquaintance with the Word of God — to seize upon 
the few opportunities which they possess in order to 



Lect. XV.] COTTAGE LECTURES. 375 

give them some fuller and deeper knowledge of the 
Scriptures themselves ? 

To some the expository style of preaching may 
appear to be such a simple thing as to need no / 
previous training ; but to my mind, while it is the 
easiest kind of preaching in the world to do badly, 
it is the most difficult kind to do well. For expo- 
sition of the Scripture, if it is to deserve the name, 
must be the result of such a knowledge of the 
Scriptures as is neither superficial nor general, but 
patient, deep, minute, and practical, — a catching up 
and incorporation into our hearts, not merely of its 
idioms and its style, but of its light and love, — a 
distinct apprehension, not only of its arguments and 
conclusions, but of its bearings upon the hopes and 
fears and struggles and aspirations of the human 
heart. Unless a man masters the Holy Scripture 
in this way — intellectually, spiritually, practically — 
he cannot be in any true sense an expositor of it. 
The more he knows of its grammar, diction, style, 
truth, spirit, purpose, the more fully will he be 
qualified to expound to others what he has thus 
thoughtfully, painfully, prayerfully, endeavoured to 
make his own. 

It is in this way especially that the cottage lecture 
may influence the pulpit. The growing familiarity 
with this expository style of preaching in the one 
case, and the due preparation for it, will gradually 



376 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XV. 

give tone and colour to our more public teaching 
in the other ; and the hearers will begin to feel the 
vigour of a fresh life, in proportion as they are 
brought more directly into contact with the living 
oracles of God. They will come to regard the 
Bible, not as they too often do, as if it belonged to 
the history of another world ; but as a book adapted 
to all the phases and circumstances of their own 
changeful and eventful lives. You will add uncon- 
sciously to the great evidences for Christianity, by 
feeling, and causing others to feel, the many-sidedness 
and unity of the Word of God. 

You will begin to realize, in the study of Divine 
things, what the illustrious Newton realized in the 
pursuit of earthly science — the vastness of that ocean 
of truth which lies undiscovered before you. It is 
well to gather up and exhibit the solitary gems that 
lie scattered up and down in individual texts, upon 
the shores and inlets of Holy Scripture ; but it is 
better, grander, and more profitable, to weigh our 
anchors, unfurl our sails, and launch out into the 
great ocean of Revelation, visiting in turn its mighty 
continents and remoter territories, and bringing 
back with us from every coast we visit, whether in 
its older or newer hemisphere, the wealth, the produce, 
and the marvels which were meant to enrich and 
satisfy our souls. 

For all these reasons, then, I commend the cottage 



Lect. XV. j COTTAGE LECIURES. 377 

lecture to your attention and your use. You will 
find it to be an important adjunct to your parochial 
machinery ; a means of reaching some whom other- 
wise you might never reach ; a help and preparation 
for the better appreciation of our Church's services ; 
a training-school for the cultivation of your own 
mental and spiritual powers ; and, best of all, a means 
of grace and blessing to your people and the Church 
of God. 



Jfafo fa lUaxjr WRaxhhiQ Htm. 

BY THE REVEREND THOMAS MOSSE MACDONALD M.A., 
PREBENDARY OF LINCOLN, AND RECTOR OF KERSAL 
MOOR, MANCHESTER, 



XVI. 

HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN. 

MY subject, in short, is " How to reach working 
men." More fully stated it is "The con- 
dition of working men and the methods by which 
we may best hope to reach them for the ends of 
parish work." 

This problem has doubtless occupied the attention 
of most clergymen. It cannot but force itself on 
the anxious thoughts of every earnest minister of 
Christ in a large population. Upon its practical 
solution, much more than upon Acts of Parliament 
or decisions of courts of law, depend the safety 
and growth of the true religion established among 
us. The security for the permanence of religion in 
the land is that it be established in the hearts and 
homes of the people, and the secret of this is but 
to a small extent in the hands of lawyers and 
legislators ; but to a degree beyond all calculation 
it is in the hands of the parochial clergy. 

If we can but win the confidence and attachment 
of our working men, and make them to become 



382 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. X 

witnesses to the efficiency of the National Church, 
we shall have secured the best society for Church 
Defence. The enemies of the Church have found their 
most effective weapons in the neglects and abuses that 
have existed within her pale. To reform these abuses, 
and to be wisely and faithfully active in our parishes, 
will be our ample security against their worst attempts. 

My desire is to offer such counsels and considera- 
tions to my younger brethren, as, looking back upon 
my own early ministry, I believe would have been 
helpful to me in my efforts among working men, 
who were a chief object of my labours in a large 
town parish for nearly twenty years. 

To be prepared for such work, a young clergyman 
should realize the position in which he stands as a 
minister of the National Church with parochial 
charge : he should have a clear view of the great end 
of parish work among working men ; he should be 
acquainted with the condition and surroundings of 
working men generally, and with the influences, 
whether for good or evil, under which they live; he 
ought to know the state of those in his own parish 
minutely; and lastly, he should be acquainted with 
the methods which experience seems to approve as 
the wisest and best for his work. 

What I have to say will follow this order : — 

L His own position as a minister of the National 
Church, with parochial charge. 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN. 383 

The Church, as national, accepts the responsibility 
of providing for the spiritual wants of the community. 
The parochial system is her provision for the discharge 
of this responsibility, which, thus distributed, is 
accepted for his own parish by every incumbent and 
curate, as the condition upon which he holds his 
position. Every parish clergyman is thus solemnly 
pledged to the spiritual care of all within the bounds 
of his parish, as far as he can find opportunity. 

There are doubtless many examples of earnest 
work by which congregations are gathered and 
churches filled. But a congregational success is not 
the success of a parochial clergyman. He may see 
the seats of his church filled with respectable people, 
attracted — it may be — from other parishes by his 
eloquence or his ritual ; but, in view of the obligation 
he has accepted as the minister of Christ to a parish, 
he can scarcely look upon this fruit of his labour 
with complacency, if whole classes of his own flock 
are conspicuous by their absence. 

First of all, then, I would have it enforced upon 
the conscience of every young clergyman, that what- 
ever claims upon his time or attention may present 
themselves, the claim of his parish, and of all who 
live in it, upon his earnest pastoral care is always of 
the first obligation. 

II. To direct and sustain our interest in work 
among working men, we must have a clear conception 



384 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI 

of the end for which we seek to reach them. That 
end is simply to promote their true zvelfare. Our aim 
is to help them by all possible means to become wise 
and good and happy men, such as may be always 
welcome in their homes, and beloved, and a blessing 
to their neighbours. 

And as we are assured that this object, for any 
class or any individual, can never be secured by any 
order of means in which religion, the religion of 
Christ, does not hold a foremost place, our supreme 
aim in all our plans is to bring men under the influence 
of religion. Many other and subordinate purposes 
there are, which are valuable in their own place, and 
which in their own place we are glad to promote. 
But educational and social reforms can never reach 
the root of man's well-being. That root lies deeper 
than his intellectual and social nature. Our Maker 
has made the spiritual faculties supreme in the human 
constitution, and till the whole man be brought under 
their control, and they themselves quickened into 
life, and guided by the power and teaching of the 
gospel, the foundation of man's real welfare in any 
relation is still unlaid. 

The object, then, for which we seek to reach work- 
ing men is no object of mere human philanthropy. 
Our mission is divine ; and as the representatives in 
our parishes of Him who "went about doing good," 
our lives are consecrated to promote to the utmost 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 385 

of our power the good which He lived and died to 
do, — " to seek and to save that which is lost." 

HI. An accurate acquaintance with the state of 
his own parish is as necessary to a clergyman, to 
stimulate and direct his zeal, as a careful diagnosis 
of the condition of his patient is necessary to a wise 
physician ; but the physician must have walked the 
hospitals, and have acquired a careful acquaintance 
with the conditions of health and disease in general, 
before he is qualified to examine his patient. 

As a young clergyman attempting work among 
working men, I should have been thankful for some 
general knowledge of their condition, and of the 
influences, for good or evil, under which they live. 
Such knowledge would have been most serviceable, 
as directing my inquiries concerning those in my own 
charge. I will state, then, as shortly as I can, such 
facts as give a fair indication of the general condition 
of working men, and the forces which are forming 
their habits in respect of morality and religion. 

It cannot be denied that causes fitted to promote 
the happiness and contentment of the people have 
been in operation for the last forty years. Discon- 
tent and disaffection to the institutions of the country, 
both in Church and State, were then wide-spread. 
The occasions of these have been removed by a wise 
course of legislation. Great sanitary reforms have 
been effected. The trade of the country since the 

2k 



3 86 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

year 1840 has been increased more than sixfold. 
Wages have risen 50 to 80 per cent., while the 
hours of work have been reduced by ten or twelve 
per week, and the price of bread has scarcely 
increased. 

The Church, too, during this period, has made 
astonishing exertions and sacrifices to adapt herself 
to the spiritual requirements of the nation. More 
than three thousand churches have been built since 
1840. Parishes have been subdivided so as to make 
one new parish for every three existing in the begin- 
ning of the century. The parochial clergy had 
increased from 11,006 in 1841 to 19,043 in 1871. 
The education of the country has made vast progress, 
so that there are now five children in really efficient 
schools for every one who was at school (and the 
schools were then unworthy of the name) in 18 18. 
The population meanwhile has only about doubled. 

The Church's influence upon working men has 
greatly increased during recent years through the 
labours of " the working clergy/' a class which exists 
in much larger proportion than in any former period 
of our history. Among the teeming populations of 
our great towns they are often a hidden class. Their 
labours and sacrifices are not in public view. Un- 
associated with disturbing controversies and crotchets, 
content for the most part to work on the old lines of 
the Church of England, and faithful to their parochial 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 387 

trust, their patient, loving toil has done and is doing 
more than any other agency to cement the union 
between the Church and the nation. 

Many institutions besides have come into existence 
during this period — as Mechanics' Institutes, Mutual 
Aid Societies, Temperance Societies, Bands of Hope, 
etc. — whose aim is to improve the condition of the 
people. 

The effect of all these causes is a greatly improved 
tone in respect of religion and the Church through- 
out the community. This has been most strikingly 
manifest in parliamentary and school-board elections. 
A notable example was sqqii as the result of the 
ballot in 1879 in Nottingham, a town which had a 
most unenviable notoriety but a generation before. 
Two clergymen were elected to serve on the first 
school-board in that town, and one of the two was 
at the head of the poll. 

And it is certain that the Church's effort to reach 
working men is now made under more hopeful cir- 
cumstances than at any former time. Yet all that 
has been done so far is but preliminary work. None 
will pretend that as a class the working men of the 
land are brought under the Church's influence. 

There are other facts of their condition, and other 
forces in operation among them, of which we must 
take account, if we would understand their position, 
and what our work among them must be. 



388 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

What then are the facts respecting Religious Obser- 
vance, Crime, Drink, and the Influence of the Cheap 
Press ? 

I. Where are our working men on Sunday? How 
few of us can reply, "A fair proportion of them in 
my parish are at church or some other place of 
worship." The religious census of 1851 disclosed 
the startling fact that out of a population of nearly 
eighteen millions in England and Wales, more than 
five millions were absentees from public worship of 
any kind. Since that year there has, no doubt, 
been a great improvement. But seven millions have 
meanwhile been added to the population, and I fear 
the increasing attendance of working men at public 
worship has not more than kept pace with the 
increase of population. I doubt if it has done so 
much. A private census would sometimes make a 
sad revelation. I know of one district in which, 
out of 1058 adults, 615 disowned all profession of 
religion ; and another where, of 140 inhabiting a 
large court, only two professed to go to a place of 
worship, and one of the two was a Mormon. And 
these, I fear, are cases representative of very many. 

But if working men are away from our churches, 
how is this to be accounted for, and under what 
influences are they as regards religion ? 

For multitudes of them the only account to be 
given is that they are neglecters by habit. They 



Lect. XVI.] HO W TO REACH WORKING MEN 389 

have almost all been scholars in Sunday schools; 
as scholars they went to church, and only as 
scholars, for their parents and elder brothers were 
not there. When they outgrew the school, the only 
link that held them to the Church was broken. 
Thenceforward free from the restraints of school and 
from the teacher's influence, their negligent habit 
began : they wandered in company with others of 
their own class, and became easy victims of Sunday 
idleness and the vices that attend it. Every week 
becoming more independent, and with more money 
to spend, they soon found their way to the public- 
house, or to worse places. Some became gross, and 
sank rapidly lower, but (with rare exceptions) all 
became indifferent to religion. Thus, without any 
set intention, a habit has its beginning, which, before 
manhood is reached, becomes inveterate — the habit 
of disregard to the Sunday, and to all the obser- 
vances of religion. 

But it cannot be denied that a very large class 
of working men have come to regard it an unmanly 
thing to be religious. Their own account of it, as 
I have often had it from themselves, is that they do 
not care to be like the Christians with whom they 
have to do, upon whose character the only apparent 
effect of their religion is to add its pretence to 
conduct which is at least as selfish and regardless ot 
the feelings and rights of others, as that of their 



39o HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

neighbours who make no profession. It is, of course, 
unfair that Christianity should be judged, not by its 
principles, but by the conduct of those that profess 
them. But however unfair, it is and will continue 
to be most common ; for men's convictions on the 
subject of religion are not commonly the result of 
unprejudiced and sincere inquiry. They are derived 
very much from the moral atmosphere in which they 
live, and the impressions produced on them by the 
conduct of religious or irreligious people. It is most 
true that the only Bible read by the multitude is the 
conduct of professing Christians ; and in the case of 
those working men who see no worthier representa- 
tives of Religion than are sometimes found in their 
employers, it is easy to see how, in the atmosphere 
of the public-house, or of the workshop or the club, 
surface-doubt passes into unbelief, and dislike of 
so-called Christians into contempt and hatred of 
their religion. The popular and practical infidelity 
of England has commonly no other or deeper root 
than this. . 

2. Another and an important index of forces in 
operation among the working classes is found in the 
records of Crime, which are published by authority. 
It is commonly stated — to use the words of a useful 
and generally accurate publication*- — that "the crime 
of the country is happily on the decrease," and it is 
* Whitaker's Almanack, 1877. 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN. 391 

added, "it will no doubt be further diminished as 
the lower classes become better educated." I am 
sorry to say the alleged fact is not true, nor is 
the confidence thus expressed warranted by expe- 
rience. 

In proof of the decrease of crime, the returns are 
quoted of what is called the < indictable crime ' of the 
country, i.e., of the offences tried by jury at the 
Assize Courts and Quarter Sessions ; but no account 
is taken of the police reports, i.e., of offences dealt 
with summarily by the magistrates. These were not 
published before 1857. But it is obvious that no 
correct estimate of the condition of the country re- 
specting crime can be formed except by a combination 
of both classes of returns. The number of "in- 
dictable offences " does not annually exceed 20,000. 
Those of the police reports are more than twenty 
times this number. In an inquiry therefore into the 
influences at work in the general population, the police 
reports are a much more important guide. Nor must 
the offences of the police reports be thought of as 
only trivial, unless licentious and violent outrages, 
and the kicking of wives and neighbours, and robbery, 
'be trifling matters. 

So far from a diminished tale of crime in the 
country, there is a great, even an alarming increase 
as is shown by the increase of offences in the police 
returns from 266,019 in i860 to the prodigious number 



392 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

of 433,868 in 1874. I am sorry to say Lancashire 
must own to a large proportion of the increase. 

The degree in which crimes of violence have 
multiplied in late years has a sad significance. For 
example, in 1874, as compared with i860, there was 
an increase of 36 per cent, in " common assaults," 
and of no less than 128 per cent, in " breaches of the 
peace." 

3. Offences thus multiplied and thus increasing 
represent evil agencies at work on a vast scale, and 
with which we have to do battle. But there is ONE 
MONSTER EVIL familiar to us all, against which, more 
than all the rest, our weapons must be directed with 
our utmost skill and perseverance. There is no need 
to multiply testimonies to that which has been so long 
and so loudly proclaimed in the ears of all : namely, 
that (to quote the words of one of the judges*) " nine- 
teen-twentieths of the acts of violence in the country 
originate in the public-house ; " or (as another of the 
judges! declares) that "DRINK is at the bottom of 
nearly all the evils that are committed in the land." 

But not only is excess in drinking the besetting 
sin of the lower classes in England, and the chief 
source of crime ; there is also abundant evidence that 
it has frightfully increased in late years. It is an 
alarming fact that in the police returns an increase 
of no percent, occurred in the number of persons 
* Mr. Justice Keating. f Mr. Justice Denman. 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN. 393 

convicted of drunkenness and disorder in 1874, as 
compared with i860. 

The statements of the Registrar-General tell a simi- 
lar tale. The deaths directly resulting from alcohol 
(as by delirium tremens, etc.) increased between 1870 
and 1874 in the proportion of from twenty-nine to 
forty-five, and of men thus destroyed nearly a fourth 
were under thirty-five years of age. But reports can 
only in a small degree represent the results of drink 
in this country. The facts that come before the 
public through the police, etc., do but slightly indicate 
the innumerable and unspeakable woes, of which no 
official account is taken, and which no tables of figures 
can adequately represent. 

How is this frightful increase of drunkenness and 
its attendant miseries to be accounted for ? Most 
easily. The cause is found in the temptations ot 
public-houses and beer-shops so shamelessly multi- 
plied in our midst. Strange it may seem, but it is 
true, that the proportion of places licensed for the 
sale of strong drink has nearly doubled in the last 
forty years. In 1829 one person in 270 was licensed 
to sell intoxicating liquors. In 1869 there was one 
in 140, or one house of drink established for every 
thirty houses in the country. 

Thus, while in the last generation an unparalleled 
advance has been made in the country's material 
wealth, and greatly enlarged means of improvement 



394 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

and happiness have been given to the people, side by 
side with this advance a vile machinery has grown up, 
which, like Pharaoh's ill-favoured kine, devours the 
means of improvement, and destroys the happiness 
and character and hopes of myriads of working men 
and their families. 

4. And what of the Literature which is in the 
hands of the working classes'? It is common to 
hear men speak triumphantly of the spread of 
education. And this, together with the increased 
leisure of the people, would be occasion for re- 
joicing, if we could be sure that it would not be 
abused. But the possession of power does not 
imply its right use, as so many seem to assume. 
The result of the extended power to read has 
been a vast and increasing demand for books and 
periodicals, and to meet it there is a correspond- 
ingly enormous supply of cheap literature. A con- 
siderable and an increasing portion of this is no 
doubt wholesome and good. But those who are 
devising means to benefit the working class ought 
to know that an immense proportion of it — which 
is also vastly on the increase — is infidel and vicious 
in the last degree. 

The so-called National Reformer is a leading 
organ of what is called "secular literature," the 
literature which combines atheism and infidelity of 
every sort in a bitter antagonism to Christ and His 



Lect. XVI.] HO IV TO REACH WORKING MEN. 395 

religion. The recent boast of this journal is that 
the circulation of the literature which it represents 
has had a threefold increase during the last tzvo 
years. 

The Bishop of Peterborough, in a recent speech, 
said : " I have lately seen publications, cheaply got 
up, cleverly written, and largely circulated among 
the working classes of this country, which for 
virulence of abuse and rancour of hate against not 
merely the doctrines of Christianity, but the Person 
of its blessed Founder, and which for foulness of 
denunciation, are unparalleled in literature, and 
were not exceeded by the foulest and most horrible 
utterances of the last century, even amid the 
horrors of the French Revolution." 

It is a fact of no small significance that the 
Sunday newspapers have reached a circulation of 
nearly thirty millions annually. 

There is one department of this literature which 
demands our special vigilance. We are accustomed 
to think of our work among the young as having 
most promise of success. So think the Secularists. 
A leading aim of the organization of their party, 
upon which they congratulate themselves that it 
has recently made rapid growth, is to flood the 
land with a deluge of boy-literature of this class. I 
am assured by a gentleman in this city, who has 
ample opportunities of knowing, that new serials 



396 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

are continually appearing, of which the special 
feature is a glowing description of daring robberies 
and acts of piracy and plunder, the perpetrators 
of which are celebrated as heroes. 

The Saturday Review, in an article entitled "Penny 
Lessons in Depravity," having given the story of a 
robbery by a boy, which was the result of his 
reading vile literature, states that "tales of this 
kind are bought up in these ' Penny Dreadfuls ' by 
thousands and hundreds of thousands every week, 
and have again and again been found in possession 
of boy-burglars, to whose worst tastes they are 
strikingly adapted, ringing the changes for the most 
part on deeds of violence or hideous obscenity." 

It is not wonderful that the number of " boy- 
burglars/' offenders under sixteen years of age, 
convicted of robbery, increased from 6,048 in i860 
to 10,048 in 1873. 

The amiable philosophy which imagines that the 
increase of secular education can be only a blessing 
will perhaps modify its conclusion, and descry 
dangers ahead, if its eyes can be open to the vision 
of myriads of our population, especially of the 
young, with their newly acquired power to read, 
devouring the blasphemous and filthy trash of these 
publications. 

Those who are confident of wonders of moral 
improvement to follow upon educational and social 



Lect. XVI.]. HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 397 

reforms apart from religion, can maintain their 
astonishing confidence only by ignoring the two 
great considerations which I have thus far endea- 
voured to make plain : — (1) That there are hostile 
forces — gigantic, active, and widespread — which are 
eagerly assuming the direction of whatever power 
and opportunity may arise from the improved 
education and the increased wages, leisure, and 
political influence of the people ; and (2) that there 
are facts which prove beyond dispute that the 
educational and social reforms of the last genera- 
tion have not prevailed to abate the evils which 
afflict our country and hinder the progress of 
religion. 

But if others are blind to them, the existence of 
these forces and the significance of these facts must 
be taken account of by Christian men, and most of 
all by the clergy. In whose parishes are the irre- 
ligious and the criminal and the drunkard and the 
licentious to be found ? There is not one of them 
but is the object of responsibility to some parish 
clergyman, who is bound to have a pastor's care 
for him; and I suppose that every one of us — not 
perhaps without some sense of shame for past neglect 
■ — must own that a share of the burden belongs to 
him. 

I have always been thankful to the excellent 
archbishop by whom I was ordained, that he put 



398 H0MILET1CAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

into my hands a form of what he called a " Speculum 
Parochiale," with directions how to fill it up. A 
young clergyman ought to make it 'among his first 
duties to furnish himself with definite information 
respecting every house, and (especially in relation 
to our subject) respecting every man and every boy 
in his parish. He ought to know where they are on 
Sunday; how they spend their leisure time; what 
books and periodicals and newspapers they read ; 
what company they keep ; and what is the character 
and place of meeting of any society or club of which 
they are members. 

Such inquiries faithfully pursued could not but 
result in giving him a deeper sense of the importance, 
the difficulty, and the intense interest of the work 
with which he is charged. 

Would that each of us who have parochial charge 
might awake to the greatness of our obligations, and 
of the results which are depending on our fidelity or 
our neglect ! Would that each might resolve hence- 
forth, by God's grace, to do his utmost to seek out 
and rescue and guard every member of his flock who 
is in danger ! This would be to raise an effectual 
breakwater against the rising tides of evil, and give 
a mighty impulse to the working of that parochial 
machinery which, in the hands of wise and loving 
men, I believe to be adapted beyond all others to 
bless the homes and people of England. 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN. 399 

IV. One other and important element of the pro- 
blem which each clergyman has to solve for his own 
parish will be found in the methods which experience 
seems to approve as the wisest and best for parish work 
among working men. 

And first of all we must fix it well in our minds 
that as our mission is divine, so the main instrument 
of our work is not left to our own wisdom to invent, 
nor is it a human power which makes it effectual. 
If men will presumptously undertake to improve 
themselves or their fellows upon plans which leave 
out all recognition of their Maker and His great 
plan, they ought not, and they never can, succeed. 

If we are true men as Christ's ambassadors, our 
confidence can never be in any device for human 
well-being of which God's method is not acknow- 
ledged as the essential feature. " I am not ashamed 
of the gospel of Christ : for it is " (even as when 
first proclaimed) " the power of God unto salvation 
to every one that believeth." 

Our question is, therefore, how to reach working 
men, so that they may come under the power of the 
gospel. The methods by which they may be reached 
are of two classes : Direct and Indirect. Direct, by 
the preaching of the gospel, as by St. Paul for 
three years at Ephesus, " publicly and from house to 
house." Indirect, by the employment of secondary 
means. 



400 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

I. Direct methods. Not much detail is needed on 
a subject so familiar. Yet when it is also a subject 
of so great importance, it must be remembered that 
the commonplaces are of greatest necessity. There 
is one consideration which, because it is so obvious, 
and notwithstanding its immense importance, ex- 
perience shows is apt to be left out, not only when 
we speak to others, but even when in quiet and 
thoughtful hours we speak to ourselves. 

(i.) May I use the liberty of an elder brother, and 
point out to every worker for Christ that in seeking 
the spiritual profit of others the great instrument of 
his work is himself, and that his first care must be to 
be himself fitted for it ? " He that winneth souls is 
wise." But how more than unfortunate is the manner 
vvhich sometimes is seen in a clergyman, which gives 
the impression of a heart which knows no sympathy, 
and which is fitted to repel rather than to win the 
confidence and love of his people! Such an one 
ought seriously to inquire whether or not this cold 
and repellent aspect can be got rid of; and if not, 
whether he can be in his right place in an office the 
great end of which is to win the influence of love 
upon others. 

But manner is the dress which the soul puts on ; 
and the true secret of a wise and loving manner is 
within. Knowledge is important, and many a gift 
beside; but in the work of Christ it is first of all, 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 401 

not knowledge, but character, which is power ; for 
it is not by what we know, or what we say, or do, 
but by what we are, that we exert our chief influence 
on other minds. 

The working people, who know little of artificial 
life, are quick to discern the difference between the 
professional or patronizing call of the mere official, 
and the visit of one whose presence is a ray of 
sunshine, — the man or woman whom a true instinct 
teaches them is the representative of Him who is the 
Friend for all occasions. How often our Master, in 
representing how His followers would influence the 
world, speaks not of the instruments in their hands, 
but of themselves as specially qualified by His grace 
for their work ! " Ye are the salt of the earth ; " " Ye 
are the light of the world." Of Himself, the great 
Magnet, He said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto me." But this work of His is also our 
work — to draw men to Christ. And how ? The 
magnetised bar of iron becomes itself a power of 
attraction, but its virtue is not self-derived. He that 
will transmit the electric current to another must be 
himself in communication with its source. If we 
would have any true success, we must see that we 
are not in Christ's work without Christ ; of which 
there is no small danger. 

A recent writer calls this power of influencing 
others " the enthusiasm of humanity ." St. Paul 

26 



402 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XVI. 

points to its true and only source when he says, 
" The love of Christ constraineth us." 

(2.) " If you want to get to a mans heart, yon must 
go to his house!' Distance, in the case of those who 
ought from their relation to each other to be friends, 
produces not only indifference, but alienation and 
dislike. 

We must show our people that we care for them 
by being at some pains to know them and their 
families at home. "A house-going parson makes a 
church-going people." 

(3.) The clergyman, too, who is known in his 
parish as the children's friend, has already got into 
the citadel. Who has not learned that the shortest 
and surest road to a parent's heart is by caring for 
his child ? 

(4.) And seasons of personal and family sorrow 
are ever occurring, which give golden opportunities 
of influence. Men's hearts are then open, as at no 
other times, to the power of kindness, and respon- 
sive to the claims as well as the consolations of 
religion. I have had great reason to be thankful for 
the counsel I received from a venerable clergyman 
when I was going to my first parish, diligently to 
watch and lovingly to use occasions of sorrow among 
my people. 

(5.) Special adaptation of services to the circum- 
stances and habits of a large class of our people is 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 403 

a great necessity. All experience proves that they 
will not come at once to our churches. They need 
to be educated up to the Church and the Prayer 
Book through services especially suited to their 
habits, and brought to the level of their tastes and 
understanding. Open-air addresses and the use of 
the shortened service, with some extempore prayer, 
much singing, and suitable addresses in schoolrooms 
and cottages, are very valuable. But the Church 
must do more than this, for there are very many who 
will not be induced to come even to such services. 
There are many factories, warehouses, and workshops 
in which we can obtain permission (as the experience 
of parochial missions ^proves) for short services, in 
which employers and employed will give a cordial 
welcome to the clergyman who shows himself willing 
for their sakes to give up his ease, if by any means 
he may win their hearts for the Master whom he 
serves. 

In different parishes, methods devised by true and 
earnest men will differ. A faithful and loving clergy- 
man whom I know in Derbyshire is in the habit of 
descending regularly into a coal-pit in his parish, to 
hold a service with the miners at a convenient time. 
His welcome is made more cordial by his daughter's 
accompanying him to lead the singing, delighting as 
she does to help her father's effort to secure that in 
his parish, in the name of Jesus, not only things in 



404 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

the earth, but also things under the earth, may bow 
the knee. 

Parochial missions have proved valuable helps 
among working men. But their value seems to be 
in the permanent work which they originate, or to 
which they give new life. I know parishes, the whole 
aspect of which has become permanently changed 
by work quickened into new earnestness by parochial 
missions. Alas ! I know others where there has been 
no earnest care after the mission to reap its results, 
and where the last state of the parish and the clergy 
is in danger of being worse than the first. 

(6.) A capital defect of our parochial organization, 
and the failure of our work where it needs to be most 
efficient, is among our male population of the years 
from fourteen and upwards. It is just in these years 
that our teaching and influence are most needed, for 
their character is then taking its final mould, and the 
influences are most powerful and active by which so 
commonly their future is determined for evil. If the 
Church fails to get hold of them for Christ in these 
years, they will quickly have passed out of our reach, 
and will be found in the tap-room, the theatre, and 
in still worse places. Classes on Sundays, and on 
week-evenings, in separate class-rooms, conducted by 
qualified and loving teachers, who will also encourage 
and direct their reading, are one of the most urgent 
demands of our work. Our cultivated and Christian 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN, 405 

laymen are under obligation to come to our help in 
this matter to an extent of which they as yet seem 
to have no conception. Surely, when the necessity 
of the work, and the claims of the Master whose 
work it is, and who gave His own life to promote it, 
come to be understood, the Church's offering will not 
consist (as it too often does) of the refuse leisure and 
interest which remain after the world's demands have 
been met. Ours must be the task so to instruct and 
influence our men of position, ability, and culture, 
that they will account it an object worthier of their 
interest to help us to rescue and to guard the growing 
men of the next generation, than any employment 
of their leisure time which has only present indul- 
gence for its aim. That they have been thus far so 
unhelpful in our work, perhaps is due to the lack of 
the magnet-force, — the enthusiasm of humanity, — 
the " constraining love of Christ " in ourselves. 

2. Indirect methods. But when all has been done 
that direct efforts can do to bring the men of our 
parishes under the influence of religion, all experience 
tells us that large classes will still remain beyond the 
range of our influence. The life of neglect and self- 
indulgence into which multitudes have fallen, and 
the temptations which surround them, most skilfully 
fitted to their degraded habits and tastes, place them 
beyond the reach of means which only appeal to the 
sense of religion. In too many of our brethren, con- 



406 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI 

science has become torpid, and present gratification 
has become the chief motive of their existence. 

One of our foremost statesmen said, some years 
ago, that the duty of those who govern is *' to make 
it easy for people to do right, and difficult for them 
to do wrong."* There is surely no more terrible 
difficulty in the way of right-doing to the working 
men of England, than is found in the overwhelming 
numbers of places licensed for the sale of strong 
drink. Yet no Government, so far, appears to have 
felt any obligation to diminish their number or 
influence. While so enormous a part of our revenue 
is derived from the drinking habits of the working 
classes, it seems as if the conscience of our legislators 
cannot awake to the national danger and dishonour 
of a prosperity which is based on the degradation 
and ruin of the people. The appeal of the Grand 
Jury at the Central Criminal Court of London in 
1862 ought to be made to ring in the ears of Parlia- 
ment, until they be constrained to seek some better 
way of meeting the nation's expenditure than the 
maintenance of that which all acknowledge to be the 
disgrace and curse of England. " The Grand Jury/' 
they said, "cannot wit! hold from the Court the 
amazement and horror which they have felt during 
these investigations, at the systematic countenance of y 

* See Speech of Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, at Buckley, 
January 4th, 1864. 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 407 

and encouragement to, vicious habits, by the facilities 
afforded by the numberless places of resort for drinking 
and profligacy, thereby providing nurseries for crime 
and, destitution ; and they earnestly hope that some 
effectual steps may be taken, either by the with- 
holding of licences, or curtailing the hours for the 
sale of intoxicating liquors, to grapple with a system 
of demoralization, as antagonistic to the interests of 
religion, and as injurious to the social well-being of 
all classes of the community, as it is degrading to us 
as an enlightened nation/' 

The frightful results upon the condition of the 
people of the principle of free-trade in drink, adopted 
for years by the Liverpool magistrates, ought to be 
urged on the consideration of all who have the 
responsibility of licensing drink-houses. 

But the clergy must not wait till governments and 
magistrates awake to their responsibilities. Nor 
must we regard even the worst of our parishioners 
as hopeless or beyond our reach. The question for 
each of us must ever be, What means yet remain 
by which I may endeavour to reach the men of my 
parish who have not yet come under the influence of 
religion ? 

It is now felt, I think, pretty generally, that if we 
are to save our working men from the public-house 
and its degrading associations, something better must 
be found for them — something which shall not only 



408 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XVI 

keep them from the evils of drink and drinking com- 
panions, but shall provide wholesome and elevating 
employment and recreation for their leisure time. 
I have the utmost confidence in pleading that the 
clergy, in this (< something better than the public- 
house," may find effective, though secondary and 
indirect means of promoting religion among the 
working men of our parishes. I have indeed known 
good people who would frown upon a clergyman's 
becoming identified with any methods of social im- 
provement or recreation for the people, as a descent 
from his position, and a secularising of his office 
Such an objection is now, I trust, out of date. It 
is pretty well understood that the spirit and purpose 
of the worker give sacredness to common things, 
even as they did in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth ; 
but the true relation of these things to the spiritual 
ends of the ministry is scarcely yet rightly seen. I 
plead earnestly for their use, in wise subordination 
to the great end of parish work, because I have seen 
with what effect they may be so employed. 

My first plea is — That in the present state of things 
this class of means supplies the only avenue of access 
to multitudes of working men. 

It is well to have our churches, our schools and 
class-rooms open for services and Bible-classes, and 
if the object were only to discharge our duty, we 
might perhaps satisfy our consciences that this was 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 409 

enough. But our object is " to win souls to Christ" 
— " to save that which was lost " ; and till the souls 
are won and the wanderers gathered to the fold, 
we cannot, we dare not, be content. But ordinary 
means fail to reach whole masses of working men. 
We want to find some first point of contact with 
them, by which we may hope to influence them for 
Christ. 

Then how did our Master do in like circumstances? 
People were not in sympathy with His mission as 
spiritual any more than they are with ours ; but He 
used means other than spiritual to win the influence 
over them which He sought for higher things. His 
works of love upon the bodies and families and 
temporal condition of the people were not only 
credentials for His spiritual mission, — they were also 
the means by which He awakened men's interest in 
Himself as most manifestly their Friend, who cared 
for them in respect of interests — their earthly wants 
and bodily diseases — to which they were already 
alive. His acts of personal and social kindness were 
His way of establishing a point of contact with men 
by secondary means for the spiritual end of His 
mission. 

And here, as everywhere, He is our Pattern. True, 
the power of working miracles is not in our hands ; 
but there is something in our hands — power of some 
sort — by which we, too, may prove the love that is 



4io HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

in our hearts for those whom we would win for Christ. 
Till this has been done, there are innumerable men 
for whom our church doors will stand open and our 
church bells will ring in vain. 

I am persuaded there are many men need helping 
outside the gate of the temple, who may be reached 
by the disciple's hand of love, which, though it has 
not the power of miracle, may convey some earthly 
benefit, by which they shall come to fix a more 
steadfast and trustful eye upon their benefactors, and 
be prepared with them to enter into the temple. We 
cannot hope that the majority of working men, from 
their present position, will at a single bound reach 
the elevation of thoughtful, sober, earnest Christians; 
but, as for those who have come to the Church's 
platform, Christ is a ladder up, by which we may lead 
them daily to ascend higher, so, for those who are 
not on that platform, but a lower — it may be even 
in the horrible pit of drunkenness and profligacy — 
Christ is a ladder down, whose lowest round reaches 
the lowest level of their degradation, a position which 
else would be hopelessly beyond the reach of help. 
The first point of contact for religion in many a case 
can only be by Christ's representatives descending, 
in their Master's spirit, to meet them as brethren of 
a common humanity, and to grasp their hand upon 
the level of those interests of common life to which 
they are awake. 



Lect. XVL] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN. 411 

My second plea is — That a most important depart- 
ment of the people's life is their leisure. What they 
shall be in Sabbath hours, in their families and in 
their work, depends on how their leisure time is 
spent; but if it be not spent under religious direc- 
tion and influence, an instrument of power is left 
in the hands of those who care nothing for the 
welfare of the people. A sagacious magistrate of 
wide experience in a manufacturing district said to 
me lately, " My opinion is that we over-educate the 
people, and pay too little heed to their recreations." 

Social intercourse, mental activity, and recreation, 
cannot but be sought by the sons of toil in their 
scanty leisure. The question is, Shall they seek 
these things under Christian or un-Christian influ- 
ence ? Shall the forces which are moulding their 
character in these important hours be on the side 
of work or counter-work in respect of religion ? 

Alas ! how sad hitherto is the reply, manifest as 
it is to every eye in almost every parish. To an 
alarming extent the people's pleasures are found, and 
their moral and social — nay, rather, their immoral 
and selfish — character is being formed, in the public- 
houses, which more than any other scenes are the 
schools of character in our land. 

All this, I believe, is to a frightful extent charge- 
able upon the neglect of the Church, its clergy, and 
its members, in past days. It is time that Religion, 



412 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

the religion of the God of Love, should assert her 
rightful sovereignty over the men of our parishes ; 
that her representatives, in our Master's name, should 
seek out and welcome every man, with all that is 
proper to him as a man — his work, his sympathies, 
his pleasures, his relations to God, to his own con- 
stitution, to his family, to his neighbours, and to his 
country ; that he may be made to feel that Religion 
smiles on all that God has made him ; that she not 
only leads him at fitting seasons to the shrine of 
worship, but cheers him in his week-day toil, and 
with an ungrudging heart looks on, yea, and rejoices 
to bless the intelligent and joyous improvement of 
his holiday and social hours. 

Let me offer a few suggestions as to how social 
gatherings for the improvement and recreation of 
working men may be made serviceable in the 
Church's work. 

I. They must not hold too prominent a place. What 
the end of parish work is we have seen. It must 
be ever kept in view. These are not the end, nor 
principal, but only secondary means of seeking it. 
I have known parishes in which there were earnest 
movements of this sort, but for lack of their being 
kept in due subordination to the great end, the effect 
was but to give a secular tone to all associated 
with them. They became to the Church's work, 
not auxiliaries, but substitutes and rivals. But let 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN. 413 

these things stand as subordinate parts of a wisely 
constructed parish plan, whose great end is sought 
earnestly by direct and self-denying efforts, and they 
will take the direction of those efforts, as tributaries 
follow the course of the main stream into which 
they flow. The plan, in its unity of purpose, will 
be recognised by all ; and all its parts, primary and 
secondary, will stand together, as pervaded by one 
spirit, and designed to further the great end. 

2. There ought to be a manifest connection of 
these social gatherings with the purpose of religion. 
Parish lectures may form an important link between 
the Church and the people. A wise and skilful 
treatment of almost any subject that can be made 
popular may make it edifying as well as pleasant ; 
but there is a large range of subjects which are 
semi-sacred, and which, though they cannot be 
treated in the pulpit, may be turned to most valu- 
able account in the lecture-room. 

There is scarcely any subject so attractive to 
working men, at least in manufacturing districts, as 
the various themes of popular science ; and there is 
none by which the enemies of religion have more 
abused the minds of working men to purposes of 
infidelity. The astronomical discourses of Chalmers, 
which were a course of week-day lectures of this 
sort, exemplify how this class of subject may be 
made not only to instruct and delight the mind, 



4H HOMILETICAL LECTURES. Lect. XVI. 

but also to lead the wondering hearer, "through 
Nature, up to Nature's God." 

For his own profit, and for the interest and in- 
fluence of his ministry, ther^ are few things that 
would be more valuable to a parish clergyman than 
the necessity periodically to give a course of lectures 
to his people on themes kindred to the great sub- 
jects of pulpit instruction — such as "The Life and 
Journeys of St. Paul, as illustrating his Writings ; " 
"Events and Places in Sacred History, viewed in 
their mutual connexion;" "The Typical Meaning 
of the Jewish Tabernacle and its Services," etc. 

3. Parish readings and addresses, also, at social 
gatherings after tea, may be linked very usefully to 
the clergyman's work. Addresses, however, are apt 
to be dull, unless care be taken to make them 
otherwise ; and two or three subjects well selected 
beforehand, and entrusted to men, clerical or lay, 
who will take the pains to prepare a few wise 
thoughts, with suitable illustrations, cannot fail to 
mingle profit with delight. 

"AvHappy Home;" " The Duties and Joys of 
Friendship ; " " Parental Influence ; " " Independence 
of Character ; " " Counsels to Grumblers " : — I have 
seen tea-parties serve the Church's purpose nobly, 
by means of subjects such as these in the hands of 
w r ise and genial men. 

And in parish readings I have learned by long 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 415 

experience that religious subjects, and the religious 
treatment of a subject, are not unpopular, but in 
skilful hands become a prime element of interest. 
I have seen a piece from Tennyson, a fable from 
Goldsmith, or one of Mrs. Gatty's charming parables 
from nature, interest the people greatly ; but I have 
never seen them more arrested and delighted than 
while they have followed Bunyan's Pilgrim between 
the lions up to the House Beautiful, and joined the 
holy converse which he held with its fair inmates. 

Parochial branches of the Church of England 
Temperance Society, besides their value for their 
immediate object, afford excellent opportunities for 
lectures, addresses, etc., of this sort. 

4. These assemblies should be made the occasions 
of earnest invitation to the direct means of grace. 
Wisely used, they may thus become stepping- 
stones by which men will be induced to pass into 
higher scenes of intercourse w r ith the clergyman and 
his helpers. 

Bible-classes, adapted for persons of both sexes 
and of all ages, are a most serviceable form of the 
gospel net. The fish want to be attracted ; and 
just as I have seen a fisherman, the day before his 
expected sport, take care to have a spot in the 
river well baited, so by means of gatherings of this 
kind, which have a large element of popularity in 
them, working men may be placed (as I have seen 



416 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

them) under influences so genial as shall dispose them 
to accept the warm-hearted invitation to meet the 
clergyman or the Bible-teacher on a higher platform. 

These suggestions, respecting ways of reaching 
working men, I might illustrate and enforce by 
many facts from my own experience ; but such facts 
have a meaning for oneself, and for those to whom 
the circumstances are known, which they cannot 
have for others. I desire, however, to state generally 
what that experience has been, which warrants the 
confidence with which I have spoken, and which is 
my justification to myself for venturing to offer 
words of counsel to others. 

For nearly twenty years I had the charge of an 
important parish in a manufacturing town in the 
Midland district. My population, which at first 
numbered 7,000, and afterwards increased to 11,000, 
included a large number of artizans and labourers, 
who, with few exceptions, were neglecters of all 
religion, and were very many of them the victims 
of strong drink. The thirty-two public-houses of 
my parish were abundantly supported. The church 
seemed to be opened only for the more respectable 
folk and for women. 

A large ragged school opened for a weekly 
lecture was soon filled, but the men who attended 
were few. After two years, a tea party, at which 
fifty men were present, became the starting-point 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN \\l 

for work among the working men of the parish, 
and for many happy years was interesting and 
successful beyond anything I had dared to hope. 

Its history may be shortly told. In that week in 
February, 1854, a parochial association of working 
men was formed, based on an engagement, signed 
by each member, to adopt and promote among 
his fellows these four principles, — viz., Godliness, 
Temperance, Brotherhood, and Economy. 

We began with twenty-three members. At first 
we met in the schoolroom in which the association 
was formed, and which was open to us on three 
evenings of the week. As our members increased 
rapidly (we had 254 at the end of the first year, 
and this number was doubled in the second), we 
ventured to rent a large house in the parish, and 
opened it as our "Parish Public House. ,, Our 
object was to provide a cheerful place of resort for 
our members, to be open every evening of the 
week — as well as during the day for those who 
from bad weather or other causes might be with- 
out employment — where they might find a useful 
book, a newspaper, play a game of draughts or 
chess, or where they might meet friends, join a 
savings club, a Bible-class, or other means of im- 
provement or recreation. 

In our appeal for help we stated that "our aim 
was to accommodate our plans as nearly as possible, 

27 



4*8 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

without sacrifice of conscience, to the habits and 
tastes of our brethren ; and having secured a point 
of contact with them, and won their confidence, 
to try to interest them by degrees in something 
better than mere animal pleasures, keeping our 
eye ever fixed on the salvation of their souls, as 
the end of all our endeavours." 

The success of our public-house was only limited 
by the accommodation afforded ; and in the year 
1856 we appealed for funds, to erect side by side, 
in a densely crowded part of the parish, a free 
church and a working men's hall. 

The scheme met with abundant sympathy. Led 
by the zeal and liberality of our committee, the 
congregation of the mother-church did their part 
nobly. The necessary funds were provided, and 
the church and working men's hall were opened 
simultaneously in December 1859. The Bishop of 
the diocese, by whose cordial sympathy and libe- 
rality the scheme had been fostered, inaugurated this 
third stage of our progress by preaching at the 
opening of the church to a crowded congregation 
of working men. From the first day the church 
was filled, and the working men's hall (comprising 
lecture room to hold 300, and good reading and 
class rooms and library) was occupied every evening 
in the week with a thriving system of improvement 
and recreation combined. 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN. 419 

From 150 to 300 men attended the Tuesday 
evening lecture, after which there was open discus- 
sion, and at the close of which strangers were invited 
to join the association. The lecture evening owed 
its attractiveness in no small degree to a few friends 
(chiefly clerical, and of these to one especially), who 
cordially accepted their share in this work as part 
of their regular course of duty. They became pillars 
of the institution, and most honoured and beloved 
friends of its members. 

The results of the work proved a rich reward for 
all our labours. There was a number of working 
men at our Communion, who were forward in a 
manner that is rarely seen, to help us in our work. 
From fifty to ninety men were in constant attend- 
ance at our Bible-classes, held at seven o'clock on 
Sunday mornings, and again on Monday evenings. 
Cases of men deserting the public-house, the infidel 
club, and the penny theatre, for the free church 
and the working men's association, were of con- 
stant occurrence. Many a house was transformed 
from a drunkard's den into a happy Christian 
home ; and the witness of many — and of some very 
recently — in the peaceful closing hours of life have 
proved how real and how abiding was the value 
of that parochial association of working men as an 
instrument for doing the Church's work. 

My confidence, therefore, does not rest in theory. 



420 HOMILKTICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI. 

The delightful experience of many years convinces 
me that the working men of our parishes are not 
beyond our reach ; and if we have a mind to try, 
" whensoever we will, we may do them good/' 

/ am convinced we may win the working men if 
we will. 

If they have become alienated, it has been through 
our neglect. The " living voice of the Church " has 
been too much spent in delivering oracles in the 
air, instead of speaking the living words of a Divine 
and loving message to the hearts of the people. 
Our religion has failed to influence them, because 
they have been brought so little into contact with 
its earnest and loving representatives ; distance has 
produced first estrangement, and then suspicion, 
and then often hostility. Yet may we win the men 
of our parishes if we will. Difficulties are not 
hindrances. Our Master engages that the mustard- 
seed faith shall remove the mountain difficulty. A 
true welcome is awaiting those, both clergy and 
laity, who by all means, direct and indirect, are 
prepared in Christ's name to do the work of love 
among the people. In this the health and usefulness 
of the Church and the safety and prosperity of 
the nation will be found. If the parochial clergy 
will but go forth resolved — each in his own part of 
the field — to do his best to make our religion the 
religion of the people, the results we long for will not 



Lect. XVI.] HOW TO REACH WORKING MEN 421 

fail to come. " Knowledge and wisdom shall be the 
stability of our times ; " the power of strong drink 
to enslave and embrute our people will be broken ; 
the scoffs of a hollow scepticism will be pointless 
and impotent, and the public morals will be proof 
against the profanity and filth of infidel and vicious 
teachers. Then in the hearts and homes of England 
religion will have found a better and a more enduring, 
though not a more rightful, establishment than in 
England's laws. All men will see the proof that 
man's Maker is his Redeemer too, and that the true 
and only " Saviour of society " is neither warrior, 
nor politician, nor philosopher ; but that alone 
Saviour of mankind, who is both the power of God 
and the wisdom of God. Then we shall have found 
what is still (so far as the masses are concerned) 
"the missing link " between England's Church and 
England's people. 



paradjml {&tm$amttWBtoxh kb pari of % €uxt 
of §$Qnh. 

BY THE REVEREND HENRY JOHN ELLISON, M.A., HONORARY 
CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, RECTOR OF HASELEY, OXON, 
AND HONORARY CHAPLAIN TO THE QUEEN. 



XVII. 

PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK AS PART OF 
THE CURE OF SOULS. 

THE proposition which I am about to submit is 
one which, till the arguments in its favour 
have been set forth, will make large demands upon 
the patient attention and forbearance of many. It is 
shortly this : that in the present circumstances of the 
nation and of the National Church of England, the 
parochial organization for the cure of souls in a well- 
worked parish is incomplete without a branch of the 
Church of England Temperance Society. 

By the 'cure' or 'care' of souls I understand the 
charge committed to the under-shepherds by the 
Great Bishop and Shepherd of souls, the Lord Jesus 
Christ. As the eye rests upon the picture drawn 
by Himself, of what the " Good Shepherd " will be, 
nothing is wanting to contribute to its completeness. 
We see Him gathering His sheep around Him — 
knowing His own, and known by them— calling 
them all by name ; by day, as they hear His voice 
and follow Him, leading them out to green pastures 



426 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

— if they wander from the track, calling them back — 
if the wolf comes, defending them, even, if needs be, 
at the cost of His life ; by night gathering them 
into the fold, where they shall be safe from the 
ravenous beast — if one, even one, is missing, leaving 
the rest in the fold, that He may seek that one — 
when He has found it, rejoicing and calling even 
angels to rejoice with Him — and when the number 
of the lost is spread over a far wider circle, declaring 
it to be the true mission of the " Son of man * " to 
seek and to save that which was lost!' 

To the Apostles, who were to extend and per- 
petuate His work, the very measure of their love 
to Him was to be their faithfulness to the model 
He had thus given them. They were to "feed His 
sheep," to "feed His lambs," already His by right 
of discipleship : they were also u to go out into all 
the world, preaching repentance and remission of 
sins," "making known the unsearchable riches of 
Christ," and so gathering out " othet sheep " for 
Him from the midst of a miserable and "naughty 
world." And when at length the Holy Ghost had 
come — to be at once the Architect of the future 
Church, and its invisible presiding Spirit ; when the 
ground plan had been laid, from which the stately 
building w r as to rise in all its completeness, it was 
seen that the double work — the feeding those within 
the fold, and the seeking those that that were with- 



Lect. XVI I.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 427 

out — was expressly provided for : "He gave some 
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some 
pastors and teachers, for the work of the ministry, 
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all 
come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge 
of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 

I said that " nothing was wanting to complete the 
picture." One thing might perhaps have been added 
by way of contrast, to stand side by side with the 
other, to enhance its beauty — the picture of an 
unfaithful shepherd, " feeding himself and not the 
flock.'' But this had been already drawn in a 
passage of singular beauty by the same unerring 
hand of the Holy Spirit — " Woe be to the shepherds 
of Israel that do feed themselves ! should not the 
shepherds feed the flocks ? Ye eat the fat, and ye 
clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed : 
but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye 
not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which 
was sick, neither have ye bound tip that zvhich was 
broken, neither- have ye brought again that which 
was driven away, neither have ye sought that which 
was lost? (Ezek. xxxiv. 2 — 4.) 

It would be beyond the scope of my present 
purpose to attempt to apply this to the, history of 
national churches in their relation to the Church at 
large. It must be sufficient to say that here in 



428 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

England, as the Church has been planted in all 
its completeness — with the apostolic office still 
existing, with the prophetic also, we doubt not, as 
God occasionally calls out men of extraordinary- 
gifts for the reproof and the rebuke of sin- — the 
twofold office of evangelist and pastor has for the 
most part merged into one. The Church has been 
made commensurate with the nation ; it has been 
endowed by the offerings of its wealthy children 
with a tithe of the land ; the one great fold has 
been mapped out into separate ones, that each fold 
may have its shepherd, each shepherd his irapoiicid, 
his parish, the aggregate of men, women, and chil- 
dren living within reach of his voice ; in these he is 
to see the souls for the tending of which he is to be 
responsible — primarily indeed to the Lord, who has 
called him to the ministry of souls, but under Him 
to the State also, which, for the sake of its own 
well-being and that of its citizens, has secured to 
him the territorial rights of an established Church. 

In effect, then, the work of a parochial clergyman 
may be said to be of this kind. Nearest to him 
are the lambs of the fold, whom he has to receive 
for his Lord in Holy Baptism, and then, as dearest 
to Him, tenderly to watch over and train for Him. 
In a circle beyond them are the faithful souls, more 
or fewer in number, who have made their choice 
for Christ, whom the pastor is feeding with the 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 429 

Bread of Life — the Word of God given for their 
spiritual instruction, the Incarnate Word giving 
Himself for their spiritual nourishment. Outside of 
these, more or fewer again, those who have begun 
to wander from the way of holiness, who are already 
within the reach of the ravenous beast ; and these, 
as they " yield themselves servants " to him, pre- 
senting a spectacle of men and women, Christians 
only in name, but needing again to be evangelized, 
probably more hardened in unbelief, more deeply 
fallen from the image of God than those who have 
never known Him — the living illustrations of the 
truth enunciated by Him, "If the light that is in 
thee be darkness, how great is that darkness ! " 
(Matt. vi. 23). 

And the parish is only the unit of which the 
nation is the multiple. The description of the one 
is the true description of the other. The nation of 
England at the present time would present the 
picture of a central body of devoted, earnest servants 
of God, shading off into a great outlying mass of 
heathenism and infidelity ; a mass giving proof at 
times of savage violence and wickedness which no 
lover of his country and his kind can contemplate 
without thoughts of a possible future, when, if the 
restraining power of God should be withdrawn, the 
heathenism might break loose from its barriers, 
and re-enact in England the terrible scenes of the 



430 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. ' [Lect. XVII. 

French Revolution of 1789, or the Paris Commune 
of 1871* 

Now, it ought not to be necessary to demonstrate 
at any length that whatever other causes there may 
be for this state of things, one is lying upon the 
surface, patent, "acknowledged, acting and reacting 
both as cause and effect — the national passion for, 

* The following account of the recent riots in Over Darwen 
and Blackburn will illustrate what has been said : — On the even- 
ing of Thursday, May 9th, a few drunken people demanded of 
the landlord of the " Bird-in-Hand " public-house a supply of beer 
without payment. On its being refused they burnt him in effigy. 
The police, having attempted to disperse the crowd, were fiercely 
attacked with stones ; they were then kicked, cuffed, and mal- 
treated generally, and a number badly wounded. Rowdyism 
was triumphant. During the height of the row a number of the 
ringleaders, feeling a necessity for a fresh supply of the raw 
material of riot, went to the " George" Hotel and the " British 
Queen," and demanded money, and by means of threats that if 
their demands were not complied with they would wreck the 
house, obtained about twenty shillings, which they spent in drink. 
After smashing the windows of the "Bird-in-Hand," they set off 
to the residence of Mr. Ashton, a manufacturer, and broke his 
windows ; from thence to the houses of Mr. Jerrold Snape and 
Mr. Gillibrand, which they served in the same way. What was 
true of Darwen is also true, in a greater or less degree, of 
Blackburn, Burnley, Preston, Accrington, Padiham, Oswald- 
twistle, and other places. Most of the ringleaders, besides 
being primed with liquor on the occasion, have received their 
education in the public-house, and graduated in the taproom, 
Sir George Elliott's vaunted educational institution. The crowd 
which burned Colonel Jackson's residence to the ground was led 
out of Blackburn by a drunken man. A public-house on the 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 431 

and the national excessive indulgence in, strong 
drink. If we go forth — I confine myself at present 
to pastoral work, and that chiefly of town parishes — 
to our pastoral visitation, scarcely a step can be 
taken before we are confronted with the presence 
of the destroyer in one shape or another. We find 
that in homes, with every appearance of abject 
poverty, where regular work and good wages should 

road was laid under tribute by the mob, to the extent of all the 
liquor on the premises. The alcoholic liquor in the Colonel's 
cellar was consumed by the wreckers. After the work of devas- 
tation was done, the drouthy crowd returned to Blackburn, and 
levied black mail on the publicans, some of whom had locked 
up and retired to bed, but had to get up again and dispose of 
their liquor gratis, as the lesser of two evils. Take one quota- 
tion from the Burnley Express of May 18th, showing the pro- 
clivities of the crowd, and the wholesale manner in which they 
were carried out. The following are some of the doings of a 
mob en route from Blackburn to Oswaldtwistle : — " This gang 
had marched from Blackburn by way of Church, and under the 
command of a young man, who led them on. They sang at 
intervals ' Rule, Britannia/ and other popular tunes. They had 
stopped at most of the inns on the road, and had forced the 
landlords to supply them with liquor, under the threat that their 
houses would be sacked. On arriving at Church they halted at 
the ' Navigation ' Inn, and compelled the landlord to bring 
several gallons of beer. The mob was then harangued by their 
chief, and, after giving several rounds of cheers, they went to a 
beerhouse, where they received some beer, and thence to the 
' Commercial ; Inn. The landlord of the latter place demurred to 
their application for liquor, but the men were not to be denied, 
and he had to comply with their requisition before they would 
depart." — Abridged from the Alliance News of May 25th. 



432 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

have secured comfort and abundance, the wages 
have been spent in strong drink. We see public 
worship given up, children neglected ; as more of 
the inner life of the home is laid bare, rags, cruelty, 
intolerable oppression of the weaker members, are 
found to be its pervading atmosphere ; the inciting 
cause is still "strong drink. ,, With closer inspection 
still, to the believer the evidence of the actual 
presence of the evil spirit* becomes complete. He 
is " a liar and the father of lies " ; and with the 
intemperate, falsehood is the familiar weapon of 
justification and excuse. He was "a murderer from 
the beginning/' and to murders of some kind they 
are being always urged on ; — 

" Murder, most foul as in the best it is ; 
But these most foul, strange, and unnatural." 

Scarcely a week will pass, certainly not an assize, 
but murders of the most " unnatural " kind — of wives 
by husbands, or of children by parents, or parents 

* At the trial of a young farmer named Rowles, at the recent 
Oxford Assizes, for the murder of his sweetheart, Mary Hannah 
Allen, the prisoner said " before he shot her he wouldn't have 
hurt a hair of her head/' but " the devil was behind him/ 5 " he 
couldn't help it ; n " he loved her as he loved his life." His 
counsel in his speech for the defence asserted " that he was 
under the control of some greater power than himself, which 
urged him on, and caused him to do that which he did." This 
he urged as a plea for insanity, a plea which the jury refused to 
admit. 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 433 

by children, of brothers by brothers, or of women 

by lovers, or friends by friends— are recorded in the 

public press; in almost every case the murderer 

has one uniform account to give: he would not, if 

he had known it, have hurt a hair of their head ; 

" it was the drink that did it." We return to the 

fold only to find the lambs, the sheep, one by one 

drawn off and destroyed. Our day and Sunday 

scholars, whom we had watched over with loving 

care ; our young men, whom we had brought on to 

Confirmation, whom we had hoped* to see* growing 

up "as the young plants " ; worse, alas ! in not a 

few instances our young women, who were to have 

been "as the polished corners of the temple," are 

sucked in by the hideous maelstrom of temptation.* 

* The Rev. D. Kaine, late chaplain of the County Gaol, 
Manchester, in his Second Annual Report (1869), says- "Of 
1,000 prisoners, i S7 females and 554 males confessed they were 
drunkards, and of these a large number were not twenty years 
of age." Of the Protestant prisoners, 644 out of 724 had been 
at Sunday school between seven and eight years each, on an 
average. Eighty-one had been Sunday-school teachers 

The late Canon Kingsley, who at one time had been opposed 
to the Total Abstinence movement, told the writer, at a meeting 
in St. James's Hall, for the repeal of the Beershops Act of 
1030, that he had started in his parish with the opinion that 
by means of night schools, reading rooms, lectures etc he 
could influence his young men for good, and keep them straight 
but that the public-houses and beershops had completely beaten 
him. Florence Nightingale, in a recent letter to the Duke of 
Westminster on the Coffee Public-house Association, says, « God 

28 



434 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

A few years pass on, and with a closer knowledge 
of our people, older men and women, who had kept 
up the forms of religion, of whom w r e had had hopes 
that they might one day be found among the true 
Israel of God, are seen to be drifting with the 
current into the prevailing sin. The strong animal 
spirits of their youth have passed away ; the hopes 
of life have failed thern^ or its pleasures have palled 
upon the sated senses ; they have no peace in 
themselves, no better hope to take the place of 
others, no joy in the Holy Ghost; and Satan is 
ever at hand with his " refuge of lies/' the evil 
" spirit" which he presents as the counterfeit of the 

speed to your ' Coffee Public-house Association ' with all the 
heart of an old nurse like me, appalled with the diseases of hos- 
pitals, and especially of workhouse infirmaries, where the young 
men patients — at least a very large proportion — come in from 
i the drink,' and worse, come in again and again from 'the drink/ 
knowing that it will be ' the drink ' again which brings them 
there, and will bring them there as long as they live, helpless 
and hopeless to save themselves, knowing that they are caught 
and will be caught (like the Hindoo ryots in the money-lender's 
clutch) in the same desperate trap, which, like the Indian 
money-lender, extorts a higher and a higher rate of usury every 
year — another pound of flesh — to their dying day." 

Female Intemperance. — The following is an extract from the 
writer's evidence before the Select Committee of the House of 
Lords : — "I think Captain Palin's reports were put in. I 
would just beg to repeat an extract from one of them from 
Manchester. First of all Captain Palin says : * In the decade 
ending 1865, the average of drunken women was 525, whereas 
in the subsequent ten years the average had risen to 2,570, and 



Lect. XVI L] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 435 

good Spirit of God. " Drink and enjoy yourself ! " 
9i Drink and forget your cares." And so with the 
ao-coTta* fully established, with increasing deadness 
of soul, with no relish for Divine things, the body 
becomes the prey of one or other of the diseases 
engendered by drink ; perhaps the brain is dis- 
ordered, and self-murder the result ; and thus on 
the dying bed, or at the inquest — if indeed then — 
the medical diagnosis lays bare the truth that the 
premature death had been but the effect, of which 
the cause, if it were truly written, would be the 
habitual excessive use of strong drink. 

in the last year, 1874, there were no less than 3,059 tipsy females 
apprehended.' I have also an extract taken from the report of 
the Visiting Justices of the Westminster House of Correction 
for the last year. They adverted to the subject of the large 
and increasing number of committals of females for drunken- 
ness, and presented a return showing the occupations of the 
prisoners committed for this offence in the year 1875, which was 
as follows: c Calling themselves charwomen, 850 ; needlewomen, 
796 ; washers and ironers, 1,330 ; servants, 166 ; sewing ma- 
chinists, 35 ; bookfolders, 30 ; artificial flower makers, 28 ; of 
no occupation, 1,796 ; women of a respectable class (such as 
wives of men with comfortable homes) and women of small 
independent means, 100 : total number of women convicted for 
drunkenness during the year 1875, 5,131/ out of whom 3,811 
had been previously convicted." 

* " 'Ao-wrta : " if the usual derivation is adopted, a — <ra>£eti/, 
the meaning would be dissoluteness — wasting (not saving) the 
substance ; but if a — o-wfeV&H, it would be unsaveableness — 
not in a state of salvation. Grotius describes aacoroi as " genus 
hominum ita immemorum vitiis ut eorum salus deplorata sit.' 



436 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

This is the experience of the town pastor. There 
are few villages where, on a smaller scale, the same 
scenes are not enacted ; and as from your own par- 
ticular case you generalize to the whole country, you 
cannot be surprised that a consensus of authorities — 
such perhaps as have never met together on any one 
subject — of the members of the clerical and medical 
professions, of statisticians, of judges, of governors 
of prisons, workhouses, and lunatic asylums, should 
declare with one voice that the great stream of pau- 
perism, of crime, of lunacy, of national waste and loss, 
is mainly fed from this one prolific source ; and that 
the Convocation of both provinces, emphasizing this 
judgment, should have declared in their reports that 
"it can be shown by accumulated and undeniable 
evidence that intemperance is sapping the foundations 
of our prosperity, blighting the future, lowering the 
reputation of our country, and destroying at once 
its physical strength and its moral and religious 
life,"* 

But to the shepherd of souls there is one terrible 
thought in all this, overpowering all others : it is that 
in every such death he sees the final triumph of the 
great enemy of souls. " Be not deceived ; drunkards 
shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven." " In every 
such death " among his own flock ; then in how many 

* Report of Committee on Intemperance, Convocation of 
Canterbury, p. 9. 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 437 

among the flock of Christ at large ! " I reckon," said 
a late medical coroner of Middlesex, Mr. Wahley, 
" that 10,000 deaths occur every year in London alone, 
which should properly be put down to intemperance." 
If 10,000 in London — and London is far from stand- 
ing at the head of the list of intemperate places — then 
probably some 80,000 in the United Kingdom. Men 
and brethren, is this a sight to look upon with com- 
posure ? is it safe ? Yet this is the sight upon which 
the eye of God is resting every day. Who shall say 
but that if the voice of the inspired prophet could be 
once more heard among us, its utterance would be, 
"These things hast thou done, and I held my tongue, 
and thou thoughtest wickedly that I was even such 
an one as thyself. But I will reprove thee, and set 
before thee the things that thou hast done." " Shall 
I not visit for these things ? saith the Lord, and 
shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation 
as this ? " 

This then is our national condition at the present 
moment — the "present distress" which we have to 
meet. What is the Church to do ? the Church com- 
missioned to encounter the kingdom of darkness, with 
the promise that if true to her mission she shall 
triumph over every opposing force of the enemy. Is 
she to sit with folded hands, and do nothing ? Is she 
to fall back on her past or present efforts — on her 



438 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

educational, her pastoral work, her increased and in- 
creasing life, and say in time the evil will be overtaken 
by these agencies, and will disappear ? to talk about 
the new and better homes she is preparing to build, 
when the conflagration is raging all around ? to stay 
in the dockyards, laying down ships of an improved 
type, when the shore is strewn with wrecks, and 
drowning men are everywhere battling with the 
waves ? Not, surely, if she is the Church of Him who 
of old cut the Rahab of Egypt in pieces, and wounded 
the dragon ! not if she is the Church of Him who in 
the fulness of time through death destroyed him that 
had the power of death, the devil ; or of those — the 
long line of witnesses — who, " not counting their lives 
dear unto them," went under His banner, and in His 
steps, to rescue the Roman Empire from its pagan 
worship, England from its bloody Druidical rites, 
New Zealand and the South Sea Islands from their 
cannibalism, and the Tinnevelly Shanars from their 
devil worship ! It is a mission, a crusade, to which 
the Church in England is called, but it is a mission 
to her own perishing children. Nor is she any longer 
indifferent to the call. Her convocations have rung 
out the summons, her archbishops and bishops have 
responded to it: the Church Temperance Society, 
authorized, accredited by them, recognizing the 
Church's order and proceeding on the Church's lines, 
is the organization by which she is addressing herself 



LECT. XVI I.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 439 

to the work. Shortly, then, let me describe the 
principles and method of the Society.* 

It is, from first to last, I need not say, a religious 
society. Whatever secular agencies it may at times 
call into its service, however indirectly it may concern 
itself with legislative and social questions, it is only 
so far as these necessarily enter into and form part 
of the subject with which it is dealing. It is in itself 
an association of Christian men and women going 
forth in their Lord's name to do battle with His and 
their great enemy ; their daily strength His protec- 
tion, their daily dependence the power of prayer. 
"The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but 
mighty through God to the pulling down of strong- 
holds." 

And being such, it is in its first conception a rescue 
society. It is here that its total abstinence section finds 
its place. 

It goes forth among these perishing souls; it finds 
them, in some instances at least, terrified by the coil 
of evils and sufferings with which the drink is encir- 
cling them, flocking together for mutual aid against 
the common foe. The old total abstinence societies, 

* The history of the movement and its principles are set forth 
at length in a little volume recently published by the writer — 
" The Temperance Reformation Movement in the Church of 
England," 3rd ed. Published by Curtice, Catherine Street, 
Strand. 2s. 



440 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

it must be remembered, were the device of the people 
themselves, when all other measures of self-preserva- 
tion had been tried, and tried in vain. It finds them, 
then, in these outer folds, or ready to enter them. It 
does not for a moment lend itself or lead them to the 
declusion that they are safe there. It does not tell 
them that a pledge of abstinence will save those whom 
the baptismal pledge (if indeed, baptized) has failed 
to save, or give to its mutual promise in any respect 
the character of a lifelong vow. Nor does it permit 
them to prescribe their new rule of abstinence as a 
law to the whole community, adding a new command- 
ment, and judging others for its transgression. It 
does indeed thankfully accept the ever-deepening 
verdict of science, that the most moderate use of 
alcoholic liquor must be regarded as a luxury, not 
a necessity, and, like all luxuries, must be paid for in 
more ways than one ; * it does recognise the mighty 

* Dr. Richardson. — "The duty of my profession is to show, 
as it can show to the most perfect demonstration, that this 
cause of intemperance — alcohol — is no necessity of man; that 
it is a product of the laboratory, belonging thereto, and is out 
of place when it is used for any other than a purely medical, 
chemical, or artistic purpose ; that is no food ; that it is the 
most insidious and certain destroyer of health, happiness, and 
life." (Lecture before the Church Homiletical Society on " The 
inter-relationship of clerical and medical functions.") 

Sir H. Thompson. — " I have long had the conviction that 
there is no greater cause of evil, moral and physical, in this 
country, than the use of alcoholic beverages. I do not mean 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 441 

power of association, and of the mutual promise which 
is the bond of association, in giving help to the first 
feeble steps of the wayfarers in this (to them) most 
narrow way ; but its true strength lies in another 
direction. It takes them by the hand — the hand of 

by this that extreme indulgence which produces drunkenness. 
The habitual use of fermented liquor to an extent far short of 
what is necessary to produce that condition — and such is quite 
common in all ranks of society — injures the body, and diminishes 
the mental power to an extent which I think few people are 
aware of. Such, at all events, is the result of professional 
experience during more than twenty years of professional life 
devoted to hospital practice, and to private practice in every 
rank above it. 5; (Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury.) 

Sir William Gull (in his evidence before the House of Lords 
Committee) : — 

Ques. ; " There is a point short of drunkenness in which a 
man may injure his constitution considerably by means of 
alcohol ? " — A ns. ; " Very materially ; I should say from my 
experience that it is the most destructive agent we are aware of 
in this country." 

Ques. ; " Setting aside the drunken part of the community 
altogether, great injury is being done by the use of alcohol in 
what is supposed by the consumer to be a most moderate 
quantity ? " — Ans. : " Yes, I think so. I think that, taking it as 
a whole, there is a great deal of injury done to health by the 
habitual use of wines in their various kinds, and alcohol in its 
various shapes, even in so-called moderate quantities." 

Ques.; "Does that remark apply to both sexes?" — Ans.; 
" Yes ; and to people who are not in the least intemperate." 

Ques. ; " And people who are in good health ? " — Ans. ; " Yes, 
people who are supposed to be fairly well. I think drinking 
leads to the degeneration of tissues ; it spoils the health, and 
it spoils the intellect" 



442 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

outstretched brotherly sympathy — the hand, it may 
be, of one who has himself been rescued, or, it may be, 
of one who has been kept from falling by the grace 
of God, yet has been willing, for love's sake, to forego 
his own indulgence, and to go down to the level of 
his fallen brethren, if by so doing he may the better 
bring them up to his ; it leads them gently, firmly, in 
that time of the evil spirit's discomfiture for a season, 
to the inner fold of the Good Shepherd. He, they 
are taught, is the one only Saviour ; He was mani- 
fested that He might destroy the work of the devil ; 
He alone can give repentance and forgiveness for the 
past, deliverance from the snare of the devil in time 
to come : and by prayer and scriptural teaching, by 
the periodical meeting, weekly or fortnightly, as the 
case may be, while they stand, leading them on from 
stage to stage, till at the Holy Table they are able to 
renew the true pledge — the renunciation of the devil, 
the world, and the flesh, and the promise of obedience 
to their Lord — if they fall, never resting till they are 
raised again, and, amidst it all, not forgetting that 
there are " kinds " so inveterate that they " go not 
out but by prayer and fasting." Thus the total 
abstinence section of the Society sets about its work 
of " seeking and saving those that are lost." 

But " saving " — does it save ? does it claim, of 
those that it lays its hand upon, that all will be 
saved ? It were strange indeed if it were so, when 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK, 443 

the blessed Lord Himself spoke to multitudes who, 
" because they loved the darkness rather than light," 
refused to come to the light, that they might be 
saved. It is enough, as a very fruitful experience 
is showing to every faithful worker, that many are 
saved;* that in every such case we can claim for 
the gospel that it is the same power of God unto 
salvation as when the Apostle wrote to the Corin- 
thians, " Such were some of you ; but ye are washed, 
ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of 
the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God:" 
enough that if one still dies in his sin, the pastor 
has the unspeakable happiness of feeling that he 
has "done all that in him lies" to pluck him as a 
brand from the burning ; happy, in my judgment, 
if he can say "all" — even to the giving up of his 
own unnecessary luxury, that he may show in his 
own person the power of that cross of Christ which 
he has to preach to others. 

But " rescue work " — how little, if it stands alone, 
can it affect the sum of the national distress ! While 
we are setting ourselves to save the fallen, the enemy, 
with the greater rage because he sees the very seat 
of his kingdom attacked, is spreading his operations 

* The histories of several of these will be found in another 
small volume of the writer, "Brands plucked from the Burning," 
being a record of Temperance work in Windsor. Published by 
the Church Temperance Society, Catharine Street, Strand, is. 



444 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

over wider and yet wider areas. Public-houses are 
being enlarged, till every corner of almost every 
street is ablaze at night with the attractions of the 
gin palace ; grocers and shopkeepers* are adding 
to their legitimate trade this uncalled-for one of 
" wine and spirit dealer " ; under the shelter of the 
scriptural "wine," compounds of every kind and of 
every degree of strength are distilled and offered 
for the temptation of men and women. Is there 
no work, then, for the Church still to do in attacking 
the causes of intemperance ? Is there not here, at 
least, a common ground on which all may join, 
whether using this strong drink in strict temperance, 
or refusing to use it ? The general section of the 
Society is the answer to this question. It invites 
the whole Church of Christ in England to the con- 
sideration of the great subject, and to the practical 
dealing with it. It aims at reaching the conscience 
of the nation, and, as the conscience awakens to life 
and action, to inform and influence its intellect, 
until the public opinion of the country, at present 
so warped by custom, so blinded by prejudice, shall 
have been drawn into new and healthier channels. 

I say u in attacking the causes." I mean, of 
course, the human causes by which Satan has built 

* Proofs of the destructive results of these licences may be 
seen in the evidence of the writer, Mr. Pease, M.P., and others. 
(Third Report of Committee on Intemperance.) 



Lect. XVI I.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK, 445 

up his monstrous edifice of temptation among us. 
Is it difficult to detect and lay them bare ? Are 
they not to be found in a continuation of legislative 
enactments, of social usages, and scientific errors, 
which for generations have played into each other's 
hands, till together they have overspread the land 
with that network of temptation which it is the 
tempter's business to preserve intact ? 

" Legislative enactments " ? Is it not the case that 
that which is now declared, in its extreme forms at 
least, to be " a deleterious poison," * which, looking 
to its "enmity with the blood of man," ought to 
be, if made a matter of common sale, sold under 
checks and safeguards of the most positive descrip- 
tion, — has been invested with exceptional privileges 
— its sale on the Lord's Day legalized * when other 
trades are forbidden — its houses open till late 
hours at night, when others are closed ? Is it not 
that under the name of " restriction " licences have 
been conferred on favoured persons, of such a cha- 
racter and to such an extent that a vast trade has 
grown up amongst us, enriching its members, 
drawing, it is to be feared, fresh numbers into com- 

* Sir William Gull (evidence, page 246) : " I know that 
alcohol is a most deleterious poison." Ques. : "That used in 
large quantities it is poison ? " — Ans. : " I would like to say- 
that a very large number of people in society are dying day 
by day, poisoned by alcohol, but not supposed to be poisoned 
by it" 



446 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

plicity with its sad results, and, in all the delibera- 
tions of the legislature, making its presence felt 
by the successful resistance offered to every measure 
of reform ? Such restrictions as have been wrung 
from it — the shortened hours of Sunday, the week- 
day closing at ten in villages, at eleven in towns, 
the Forbes-Mackenzie Act in Scotland — have they 
not shown what might be done in the same direction 
with a public opinion sufficiently advanced ? 

u Social usages " ? Are we not beginning to see 
that the customs which have come down to us from 
heathen times, and to which society has given its 
sanction — the making all joy to consist in the 
artificial excitement of strong drink, all seasons of 
rejoicing to derive their zest from the presence of 
this, all aspirations for health, for happiness, to find 
their expression in the wine-cup and the " toast " 
— are but the gilded baits by which the weak 
members of the body are led on "to revelling, to 
drunkenness, and such like " ? 

" Scientific errors " ? Are not the medical scientists 
of highest reputation amongst us beginning freely 
to admit these ? Is not a new hygeia forcing itself 
upon us, which, if it be established, must show that 
under the plea of strength — strength for the nursing 
mother, strength for the languid dyspeptic, strength 
alike for the fever-stricken patient and the slowly 
mending convalescent — the alcoholic stimulant which 



Lect. XVI I.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 447 

has been ordered has, for the most part, aggravated 
symptoms, retarded convalescence, sent myriads to 
the graves from which it was intended to rescue 
them, and laid the foundation, in countless instances, 
of that terrible thirst for strong drink which no skill 
of the physician has afterwards been sufficient to 
remove, no drug from his pharmacopoeia been able 
to satisfy ? 

Grant, then, that the parish may be so happily 
circumstanced that the association for rescue work 
is not needed, is there no place for those who shall 
unite together to take their part in the great national 
movement? Are there no prayers to be systematically 
offered, no preventive agencies to be set on foot, no 
young to be trained in paths of safety, no counter- 
actions to be provided, no public opinion to be 
diligently formed ? and for this, periodical meetings 
to be held or sermons preached, literature to be 
circulated and a committee formed, whether for 
vigilance or for action, which shall be for that parish 
the means of setting and keeping the movement on 
foot? 

I revert then to my opening sentence. I ask ear- 
nestly, but respectfully, as ministers of the National 
Church, with such a machinery made ready to our 
hand — with others ready to step in if we are found 
wanting — with Roman Catholics, Nonconformists, 
Good Templars, one by one organizing and taking 



448 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

their plac 1 in the struggle which is to come — is there 
a single parish which can properly stand aloof? 

I know, indeed, the objections which may still be 
urged ; objections, give me leave to say, that have 
long since been anticipated and met, and as often as 
dug up from the grave, met and answered again. 

I know it will be said that the Church has no 
business to deal specially with one sin of the flesh 
only, while there are others, if not as general, at 
least as bad. As though it were not the glory of 
the Church that with that other sin it has dealt 
specially in this generation in the houses of mercy 
with which the land is overspread ; and as though it 
were not a proved fact that in the order of cause and 
effect strong drink was the prolific source from which 
almost all the other polluted streams are constantly 
fed! 

I know it may be urged again, that the Church 
itself is the great Temperance Association. As 
though it were not the great Penitentiary, the great 
Educational, the great Missionary Association ; and 
as though it were not by the association of men and 
women of earnest minds, throwing their force into 
that one particular channel, that every special work 
of the Church has been and must be: carried out. 

For the Total Abstinence part of the work, you 
will be told that it is a mere variety of asceticism ; 
that its logical result is the monasticism of the middle 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 449 

ages ; or " the counsels of perfection " of a later age, 
and, as we hold it, of a corrupt branch of the Church 
of Christ. But it is of the very essence of asceticism, 
and it may be added, of the " counsels of perfection," 
which are so closely allied to it, that the practice, 
whatever it is, shall be adopted as " a voluntary 
humility," as being in itself abstractedly a higher 
form of the Christian life, and as such, recommending 
its votary to the favour of God. There is no such 
claim advanced for the practice of this abstinence: 
it is "good" — if good in the sight of God — only 
because of the " present distress." 

You will be reminded again of the letter of our 
blessed Lord's example — that He drank wine, that 
He was reproached as a wine-bibber; and not a word 
will be said of the whole spirit of that example, the 
spirit of self-sacrifice — that in an age of which covet- 
ousness, the love of ease and luxury, was the besetting 
sin, He came renouncing all of these — wealth, home 
comforts, home indulgences, at last life itself; not a 
word of the use made of the example by His Apostle 
when contending for Christian liberty — "only use not 
your liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love 
to serve one another." 

You will hear again that his injunction is to be 
" temperate in all things," with a gloss upon the word, 
that to be "temperate" demands the moderate use; 
when a more accurate scholarship will show that the 

29 



450 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVII. 

injunction nowhere exists. JTa? he 6 aya)vi'£6jjLevo<; } 
iravTa eyKpareverat, " Every one that contendeth 
for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they 
do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incor- 
ruptible." Do what ? The temperance of the trainer 
for the Olympic games was abstinence from wine:— 

" Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam, 
Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit, 
Abstinuit venere et vino" 

If any practice could be legitimately inferred from a 
single line — which I am far from asserting — it would 
be that the Apostle and those to whom he wrote 
abstained from wine. 

And that nothing may be wanting to keep back 
the hand of the rescuer, it will be asserted that the 
man recovered from his intemperance will be at best 
but a Pharisee, claiming in his freedom from this 
sin to be free from all, or substituting for this some 
other sin of equal heinousness in the sight of God. 
And so he well might be ; but not where his recovery 
from first to last has been based upon the renewal 
of the whole man, carried on, in repentance towards 
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by the 
operation of the Holy Spirit of God, sought in all 
the means of grace. 

But I notice these objections only to dismiss them. 
They are the intellectual and religious hindrances 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 451 

which have been placed in the way of every great 
reform. They would have arrested the printing of 
the Bible, the education of the masses, the abolition 
of the slave trade. They are the withes with which 
the champions of the several movements were sought 
to be bound ; they have had no difficulty in snapping 
them. 

I claim for the work, that whatever else it is, it 
is Christian work — Christian in its commencement, 
Christian in its progress, Christian in its reference, 
at every stage and at every step, to that word of the 
living God, without which, if it be not in accord, 
there can be no truth in it. I claim for it that it is 
Church work. The Church of England has done 
much, within the last fifty years, to vindicate for 
herself the title of a truly national Church. She has 
renewed her youth, where alone it can be renewed, 
at the " Fountain of living waters." She has taken 
out her armour from the armoury ; she has proved 
her weapons. She has not escaped the temptation 
which belongs to all periods of intense activity — the 
" disputing about questions and strifes of words, 
whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings." 
But already she is calling off her children from these. 
In her Congresses and Diocesan Synods, as they 
come face to face one with the other, men are learn- 
ing to respect one another's motives, even if they 
cannot see with one another's eyes. She has yet to 



452 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XVII. 

take a further step. She has to call the willing- 
hearted, all who are kindled with the Divine fire of 
love, to go down with her among the masses of their 
countrymen, there, in their degradation, their sins, 
their sorrows, their sufferings, to see, in a concrete 
form, the presence of the hosts of darkness ; there 
man with man, and shoulder to shoulder, her clergy 
leading, her laymen following — as the tide of battle 
flows on, her separated children gradually but surely 
drawn into the conflict — there to forget their points 
of difference, or if they must hold them still, to hold 
them in charity ; there to forget all but that they are 
the disciples of one Lord, the soldiers enrolled under 
one banner, the bearers of one Cross, which never 
has been, which never will be, lifted up for man and 
his salvation, but the enemy sees it, and quails before 
it, and is driven back. She "has to do it"? Nay, 
it is being done. I call as a witness one whose name 
as a leader among Nonconformists is well known in 
the north of England, and with his testimony I will 
conclude. 

Mr. Hodgkin, at one of the annual meetings of the 
Newcastle branch of the Church Temperance Society, 
in seconding a resolution, said : " I am here, as the 
humble representative of the Dissenters of Newcastle, 
in order to express the heartfelt delight with w 7 hich 
they see the Church of England, with its splendid 
organization, its wealth, its long-descended culture, 



Lect. XVII.] PAROCHIAL TEMPERANCE WORK. 453 

its deep learning, and its great fund of common sense, 
descending into the arena to fight with this giant 
enemy of us all. I have peculiar pleasure in seeing 
the Church of England coming to fight, as a Church, 
in this great campaign against the national enemy. 
There is always a danger lest the Puritan legislation 
should be followed by some terrible reaction, such 
as the orgies of the Restoration some two hundred 
years ago. We must look to the Church of England 
to bring their great common sense to bear, so that 
the measures adopted are not Utopian, and not so 
far in advance of public opinion as to give no chance 
of success. Above all, we must ask the Church of 
England — reaching, as it does, both to throne and to 
hovel, and including, as it does, far more than any 
other section of the religious community, both the 
upper and the very lowest classes of the community 
— to use its influence with our legislators in altering 
those degrading laws which tend to increase the 
influence of drink upon us. And if only the Church 
does succeed in rooting out this great national vice, 
the most censorious of critics will scarcely be able 
to deny that it is the Church of England both in 
name and in power," 



BY THE RIGHT REVEREND JONATHAN HOLT TITCOMB, D.D. 
LORD BISHOP OF RANGOON, 



XVIII. 

THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE MINISTRY, 

I HAVE heard it said, by men of the world, that 
a clergyman must find everything easy in reli- 
gion, because he is practically free from temptation. 
Was there ever an opinion more unreal ? How can 
it be supposed that those should escape temptation 
who are appointed leaders in the Church, when it 
is the aim of Satan, if possible, to destroy the very 
Church itself? "We are not ignorant of his devices/' 
On the principle, therefore, that no man can ever lay 
bare the hearts of others, until he has first learned 
the weaknesses and temptations of his own, I venture 
to consider my subject as exceptionally important ; 
lying, if I may so say, at the root of ministerial 
usefulness, and demanding the greatest plainness of 
speech. 

Far be it from me to lecture my brother clergy. 
I desire only to suggest to them a few solemn 
thoughts for reflection. They must not be sur- 
prised, however, if, coming up straight from the 



458 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XVIII. 

chamber of my own conscience, I report what I 
have there felt in tones which, though somewhat 
heart-searching, may nevertheless prove profitable. 

I shall divide my remarks into three parts — viz., 
The temptations of the pulpit, the parish, and of 
private life ; endeavouring, however, to make them 
all bear on the office of preaching. 

I. We have Temptations in the Pulpit. What 
are these ? 

I. Some arise from our individual characteristics. 
Let me ask the man of literature and scholarship, 
for instance, whether he has not been often tempted 
to overlay the simplicity of Divine truth, by devoting 
his attention to elegance of composition, to richness 
of diction, to acuteness of criticism, or to skill in 
quotation, more than to the conversion of sinners, 
and the direction of troubled consciences ? In the 
same way I would put it to the lover of 'science 
or moral philosophy, whether he has not been too 
frequently tempted to import those elements of 
human wisdom within the province of his pulpit 
teaching ? Such studies may doubtless have the 
advantage of enduing style with terseness, and 
reasoning with correctness ; but who save the 
tempter would ever bring them forward as properly 
falling within the range of pastoral theology ? 
Should one hearer come to church hungering and 
thirsting after divine life, how sad to send him away 



Lect. XVI I L] MINISTERIAL TEMPTATIONS. 459 

with hard crusts and dry husks like these, uncom- 
forted, uninstructed, and unfed ! No less would I ask 
the man who has a passion for religious controversy, 
whether he is not frequently tempted to twist his 
texts out of their proper bearing, for the purpose 
of making them fit into the party struggles of the 
day; inflaming his congregation with the spirit 
of sectarian bitterness, and of uncharitable resent- 
ments ? It is bad enough, surely, when we put 
rhetoric or learning before simplicity ; but when 
we substitute angry debates on controverted doc- 
trines for the messages of Divine love, and turn 
our pulpits into an arena of public strife, it is 
incomparably worse. I am well aware how easily 
it may be said, "In these days you are bound to 
show learning, or the thinkers of society will not 
listen. You must needs discuss questions of the 
age, otherwise men of the world will accuse you 
of not being l abreast of the times ' ; you are 
pledged to l contend earnestly for the faith once 
delivered to the saints/ else your witness to the 
truth will be imperfect." Granted, however, that 
we ought all to be faithful witnesses of truth, and 
that the more we are - men of intellectual culture 
the better ; yet should not our preaching be always 
subordinated to the great work of saving souls, 
and of building up our flocks in the duties of 
practical religion ? Without this, I am satisfied 



460 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVIII. 

the adversary of souls will invariably get the best 
of it in our pulpits. 

2. Other temptations come to all preachers alike ; 
though, of course, with more or less of variation and 
intensity. One of these is indolence in the prepa- 
ration of sermons, — putting off study, I mean, till 
it is too late in the week to do anything properly ; 
or, what is worse, preaching the same sermons over 
and over again to the same congregation ; or, even 
worse still, serving them up as new ones under an 
adroit disguise of altered texts and of allusions to 
contemporary events. In this way Satan contrives 
to convert what ought to be a two-edged "sword 
of the Spirit " into blunt weapons which can neither 
pierce, nor even touch a single heart. Another 
temptation is that of unbelieving despondency — a 
frailty of which the best servants of God are some- 
times possessed ; yet which certainly comes from 
beneath rather than from above. Surely it was 
not of the Lord that Elijah lay down despairing 
over the success of his mission ; or that Jeremiah 
lamented his life because he thought his prophetic 
calling a failure. Yet such is the unbelieving de- 
spondency of some among ourselves, after years of 
what they think profitless preaching. " I see no 
fruits of my ministry/' exclaims one. "I mourn 
over efforts unrewarded by conversions to God," 
echoes another. But whence comes this language 



Lect. XVI II.] MINISTERIAL TEMPTATIONS. 461 

of distrust ? Is it anything else than the voice of 
the tempter, who is seeking to damp the preacher s 
zeal and to rob him of his peace? Against such 
murmurings we ought to rise to the consciousness 
that, as God's messengers, if our witness to truth 
be faithful, we are responsible for its delivery rather 
than its success. Another and a worse temptation 
is pride. It was well said by Richard Baxter : 
" Alas, how frequently doth pride go with us to 
our study, and there sit with us and do our work ! 
How oft doth it choose our subject, and still more 
frequently our words ! And when pride hath made 
our sermon, it goeth with us into the pulpit ; it 
formeth our tone; it animateth us in the delivery, 
and setteth us in pursuit of vain applause." Surely 
none can challenge this indictment. Think only 
of the deceitfulness of the heart, and how secretly 
the spirit of self-sufficiency insinuates itself within 
the best of us. Is our preaching power great ? Do 
crowded assemblies hang upon our words ? Are 
they swayed to and fro by the moving appeals 
with which we stir their hearts and consciences ? 
How hard to retain humility, and account our- 
selves less than the least of all ! And what even 
if our preaching powers be only moderate — will 
that banish pride ? Then why is it that the vicar 
is sometimes jealous of his more able curate, 
keeping him from the pulpit lest comparisons 



462 K0M1LETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XVIII. 

should endanger his popularity ? or how comes it 
that when service is over we are often so ready- 
to catch at passing compliments — nay, even to 
interpret the silence of our hearers as an inward 
mortification ? Oh, this cursed temptation, which 
leads us to prefer flattery to usefulness, and which 
makes us think more of ourselves than our message ! 
We recoil from the idea ; we shrink from any 
thought of its application to ourselves. Yet to 
confess is better than to repudiate it. For, unless 
detected and repented of, this temptation will 
certainly eat like a canker into our pulpits, and 
wither the fruits of our ministry. 

II. We have Temptations in the Parish. 

The bearing of these upon the pulpit, though 
perhaps somewhat indirect, is notwithstanding none 
the less real ; since in various ways they must 
necessarily affect both the character and force of 
all our preaching. From whence do they arise ? 

I. From the influences of the world. What 
preacher can lay his hand upon his heart and 
affirm that, under one form or another, he has 
not found the world a snare to him in his pulpit 
work ? We may possibly mix in society too freely, 
or we may withdraw from it too exclusively. On 
either side we are met by temptations. On the 
one hand you think it right to enter into society. 
You say — and I think well — that " the pastor should 



Lect. XVI II.] MINISTERIAL TEMPTATIONS. 463 

be the friend of his parishioners ; that the ties of 
social brotherhood are too sacred to be severed by 
professional exclusiveness ; that by mingling with 
his flock, in their family circles, he draws them to 
himself in closer bonds of affection, becomes better 
acquainted with their spiritual wants, and is there- 
fore more likely to be useful to them in his preach- 
ing." But how hard to preserve true consistency 
of position in the midst of this ! There is, perhaps, 
no part of a clergyman's duty which needs greater 
watchfulness, because nothing more easily drops 
down into worldliness. Think of the just satire we 
provoke if in this sociability, either by our levity of 
conversation, or by our too evident enjoyment of 
the pleasures of the table, or by our listening 
without reproof to improper language, we allow a 
man of the world to leave us saying, " These 
parsons are agreeable enough in society ; but they 
are one thing in the pulpit, and another thing out 
of it." How fatally must this re-act upon our 
spiritual influence when such a man attends our 
next Sunday's ministrations ! As soon as this 
result has been brought about, Satan has done 
his work. We have injured our usefulness, and 
the tempter has triumphed. Or take the opposite 
choice. You say that " in view of dangers like 
these, it is better to withdraw from society alto- 
gether; that a parish priest should be known only 



464 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. |Lect. XVIII. 

in his ministerial duties." But is there no danger 
on that side as well as on the other? Think how 
easily, by this rigid exclusiveness, we may gradually 
contract habits of personal selfishness, become 
narrowed in our powers of sympathy, lose manli- 
ness of character, remain ignorant of human nature, 
and silently fall either into a form of melancholy 
or austerity, which will repel the young, and give 
men of the world an utterly wrong impression of 
the beauty of religious life. I am far from saying 
that in either of these lines of conduct such results 
are necessary. But are they not our temptations ? 
Let us, then, watch and pray, lest, whichever course 
we adopt, we enter into them. 

2. There are temptations which arise from the 
activity of modern church life. Let us bless God for 
this activity. Never can we be too thankful that 
we live in an age of religious earnestness, when 
associations of all kinds for doing good are at work 
throughout the length and breadth of the land. At 
the same time let us not forget that they may 
possibly become drawbacks to our pulpit and parish 
usefulness. Have you never known men who, in 
their zeal for these public duties, are seen at almost 
all the anniversary meetings of our great religious 
societies, who attend all sorts of conferences about 
the popular questions of the day, who sit constantly 
on committees, read papers at Church congresses, 



Lect. XVIII.] MINISTERIAL TEMPTATIONS. 465 

deliver lectures at public institutions, write for the 
press, and take part in parochial missions ? It may 
be an exaggeration to say that any one man attempts 
to perform all these works in their entirety. Yet 
are there not many who, with the best of motives, 
distribute their untiring energies over large portions 
of these works and labours of love? What is the 
result ? Go into the day-schools, and read the log- 
book. Go into the parish, and inquire after house- 
to-house visitation. Go into the church, and listen 
to the hurriedly prepared sermon. Can this be called 
right ? How can it be right to let work which is 
voluntary and self-imposed take the place of that 
which is primarily entrusted to us by the Lord ? 
The parish, properly described in old Saxon, is ; 'a 
cure of souls " ; and the parson of the parish is held, 
by ecclesiastical law, as wholly responsible for its 
proper direction and supervision. But how can this 
be when time is absorbed and strength exhausted 
on activities v/hich have no direct bearing upon 
those more special functions to which we were 
solemnly consecrated ? Is there not the tempter 
here once more, who has seized upon our noblest 
impulses in order to cajole us from the strict path 
of duty, and to weaken the power of our parish 
ministry ? 

3. May I not add that other temptations arise out 
of the peculiar position of independence which the law 

30 



466 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVIII. 

assigns to the parochial clergy? There is little need 
to remark that, a benefice being tenable for life, the 
holder of it, so long as he keeps within law, may be 
as busy or idle, as courteous or cynical, as obliging 
or obstinate, as he pleases. The position is one of 
singular independence; but it is, at the same time, 
one of immense responsibility, and of still greater 
temptation, especially if any of us be naturally 
impatient of contradiction, and inclined to personal 
autocracy. It can then generate in us a love of 
power which is capable of setting a whole parish into 
flames — creating violence in vestry meetings, schisms 
among church workers, alienation of heart in church 
servants. " Am I not head over the parish ? " is the 
self-deceiving plea. " Is it not my work to govern 
and the duty of others to obey ? " Yes. But is not 
your commission ministerial) rather than magisterial? 
If our authority, instead of being softened by love, 
be exercised only with headstrong wilfulness, how 
can we expect to inspire confidence in our pulpits ? 
When the preacher is a Diotrephes, the best sermon 
becomes little better than "sounding brass or a 
tinkling cymbal." 

III. We have Temptations in Private. 

It will, of course, be understood that I am speaking 
only of those temptations which bear upon our use- 
fulness as preachers. 

I. Some of these are to be found in domestic life, 



Lect. XVIII.] MINISTERIAL TEMPTATIONS, 467 

the moral effects of which upon the power of the 
pulpit are no less serious than those we have already- 
considered. Is it not true, for example, that the 
very fulness of our ministerial labours may some- 
times lead us to the neglect of careful family 
training ? Have we not all known instances of our 
children being allowed, through the bustle of our 
lives, to grow up ill-managed and ill-trained— the 
painful discovery being made only when they are at 
^ an age which is almost too late for correction ? 
Thus, how sadly the vicarage becomes robbed of its 
beauty, when the talk of its younger members is 
flavoured with smart satires, with unkind surmisings, 
and with captious criticisms of their neighbours ! 
When this is so, consider the moral unfitness which 
must be induced among us for dealing in our pulpits 
with questions which bear upon the regulation of 
family life. How blunted "our exhortations on the 
ears of our audience ! Nay, how consciously unreal 
within our own souls ! And how suggestive of the 
ill-natured, yet well-deserved retort, "Before these 
men preach to us on this subject, had they not better 
attend to their own homes ? * 

Again, is it not sometimes known that a good 
man, while earnest with his flock in proclaiming the 
duties of love to others, has the character in his 
own family of being petulant and arbitrary ? If so, 
consider the effect which this must have upon the 



468 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVI I L 

domestic appreciation of his pulpit utterances. What 
a bar to the reception of truth ! 

These are not little matters. They are blots 
which need erasure ; temptations which require heart- 
searching, repentance, and conquest, if we desire to 
have even our best-prepared sermons made really 
effective and useful. 

2. The most serious forms of private temptation, 
however, are to be found in our inner life. Let us 
not deceive ourselves. The best homiletical lectures 
will utterly fail in their purpose if the secret spring 
of our inner life before God be not kept fresh and 
full. What if, by the temptings of the wicked one, 
we lose our spiritual unction ? What if, through 
pressure of work, we be led into the slothful exercise 
of meditation, reading, and prayer ? What if, while 
outwardly models of pulpit excellence, that saying 
become true, "They made me keeper of the vine- 
yards, but mine own have I not kept " ? (Cant. i. 6.) 
I have often found it well to read through the 
pastoral epistles of St. Paul, in order to provide 
thoughts for personal meditation and self-examina- 
tion on the duties and shortcomings of my ministerial 
work. Let me commend this habit to my younger 
brethren. Those portions of the New Testament 
form, in some respects, the richest legacy of Divine 
inspiration for the deepening of our spiritual life as 
workers in the ministry of the Church. In other 



Lect. XVIII.] MINISTERIAL TEMPTATIONS. 469 

parts of Scripture we may be tempted to read the 
words as subject-matter for the pulpit ; for the benefit 
of others rather than as food for our own souls. 
Who has not often unconsciously drifted away in 
that direction ? But here we are brought face to 
face with that which alone concerns ourselves. We 
read our duties, we see our failings, we look into a 
mirror of truth which shines upon us with special 
light, and photographs our ordination vows upon the 
conscience. 

Whatever medium may be used, however, for the 
purpose of sustaining this holy principle of self- 
culture, one thing is clear — we shall never be duly 
qualified for the ministry of the Word without it. 
Our Church services may be regularly performed, 
our ritual may be beautifully perfect, our parish 
business may be systematically accomplished ; but, 
in the midst of all, our pulpit work will be perfunctory 
and lifeless. And, if this be so, what possible result 
can it have but that of making those committed to 
our charge as cold and lifeless as ourselves ? 

While it is well, therefore, to pursue the critical 
study of homiletics; while no pains can be misspent 
in improving the accuracy of our scholarship, the 
fulness of our expositions, the clearness of our style, 
the due arrangement of our thoughts, or even the 
force of our delivery, let us remember that, above all 
such requisites for successful preaching, is the need 



470 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XVIII. 

of watchfulness and prayer in the things which belong 
to our own inner life with God. In other words, the 
man who burns most with love for Christ and for 
souls, who is filled most deeply with the Holy Spirit, 
will always be (cceteris paribus) the best messenger of 
the gospel, and the brightest ornament of our Church 
pulpit. 



Cjtf Insensibilities of % glimsirg* 

BY THE REVEREND FRANCIS PIGOU, D.D., RURAL DEAN, VICAR 
OF HALIFAX, YORKSHIRE, AND CHAPLAIN-IN-ORDINARY 
TO THE QUEEN. 



XIX. 

THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MINISTRY. 

MY subject, the responsibilities of the Christian 
ministry, though trite and familiar, is in such 
intimate connection with our high and privileged office 
that it is one of which we cannot be too frequently- 
reminded. As a rule, do we not need to be reminded 
most of truths with which it is assumed we are con- 
versant and familiar ? Treatises, both excellent and 
elaborate, on the pastoral office, are in the hands of 
the working clergy, who find within the pages of 
Bridges " On the Christian Ministry," Vinet s " Pastoral 
Theology," How's " Pastor in Parochia," Blunt's "Direc- 
torium Pastorale," and kindred works, not forgetting 
the late Bishop of Winchesters touching Addresses, 
counsels, hints and suggestions, as valuable as they 
are needful, not only in connection with the exercise 
of the ministry in its varied outward aspects, but in 
connection also with that hidden, inward life, which 
gives the tone to the outward ministrations. On the 
outward aspect and phase of the ministry there is 
little left to be said, except in the form of such 



474 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

addenda as the experience of the more active of the 
parochial clergy can supply, and as the result of a 
more enlarged and comprehensive view of real paro- 
chial work. We have only to open any one of the 
treatises above named to find familiar topics ranged 
under much the same heads. We may, in fact, say 
that the responsibility of the Christian ministry is 
assumed throughout ; it is like a dominant hue in a 
picture, or like the under-tone in music, more or less 
present in the strain. In the nature of the pastoral 
office ; the relation of the pastor to his flock ; the 
ministry of God's Word ; the administration of the 
Sacraments ; the visitation of the sick ; pastoral con- 
verse ; pastoral guidance ; schools ; lay co-operation ; 
parochial institutions : in all these, and more which 
might be added, the thought, I repeat, of responsibility 
is assumed. It attaches itself of necessity to an office 
of such peculiar and varied exercises ; for a pastor is, 
in the words of George Herbert, " the deputy of Christ 
for the reducing man to the obedience of God." And 
yet, when you consider that there may be a perfunc- 
tory discharge of the duties of the ministry, and that 
men take holy orders, as in the case of college tutors, 
without distinctly exercising any spiritual function, as 
also that with the most active and zealous there is a 
danger of familiarity with sacred things, this thought 
of ministerial responsibility is the one which we can 
least afford to regard as a matter of course, or assume 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 475 

as vividly felt and generally recognized. It lies, so 
to speak, at the back of all that is exercised in the 
sight of men, as the great forces of Nature are veiled 
under the more apparent of her phenomena. It is as 
the mainspring which noiselessly puts into motion 
and secretly regulates the timepiece; and to my own 
mind it has a grave and momentous bearing on our 
ministerial life, as the one thought which, in so far as 
it inspires, and is always more or less present, operates 
as a great safeguard against indolence or weariness, 
and is a spur and incentive to work while it is called 
day, remembering that the night cometh when no 
man can work. What care, also, is properly taken 
by way of preface to impress a due sense of this 
responsibility upon those contemplating taking holy 
orders ! Can too great care be taken ? Would it not 
also assist in placing the ministry in its truer light if 
we spoke of it less as a profession than as a distinct 
and holy vocation f Consider the safeguards with 
which admission to holy orders is fenced about and 
compassed, and the qualifications which are assumed 
and required. Men are admitted after due inquiry 
into their qualifications, abilities, and personal cha- 
racter, at an age later than in other professions, when 
the character and judgment are in some degree 
formed, and the opportunity is still allowed of with- 
drawal before the indelible vow is taken. The cha- 
racter is attested by three clegymen, and endorsed by 



476 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

the assent of a congregation, challenged in the most 
public manner to bring forward any reason why he 
should not be ordained. A higher order of education 
and general culture is expected of a candidate for the 
ministry. He is to teach others, and must needs him- 
self be taught. No one can over-estimate the impor- 
tance of these qualifications, nor should any one under- 
value them, when we consider the various minds with 
which he may have to deal, and the different relation- 
ships into which he is necessarily by his ministry 
brought. His calling is definite and distinct. It is 
his to minister in holy things. His work involves, 
both theoretically and practically, a separation from 
the ranks of secular men and secular professions. He 
is a shepherd rather than one of the sheep. The legis- 
lature encourages this separation by imposing civil 
disabilities, granting certain dispensations by which a 
clergyman is debarred from what might prejudice his 
usefulness, and freed from what might unduly tax the 
time which would more properly be devoted to his 
immediate duties. In the exhortation at the Ordering 
of Priests he is reminded how he ought to forsake 
and set aside all worldly cares and studies, and expres- 
sion is given to the hope that he will " apply himself 
wholly to this one thing, and draw all his cares and 
studies this way." So distinct, moreover, and sacred 
is his calling, as to be regarded irrevocable and not 
voluntarily to be relinquished. And further, great 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 477 

grace is bestowed upon him at his ordination, in the 
very formula used by our Lord Himself the Holy 
Ghost is invoked, not only to guide and sanctify, but 
also to give by His power and presence sanction and 
emphasis to all ministerial acts, — so much so, and so 
truly, " that the effect of Christ's ordinance is not 
taken away by the wickedness of a minister, nor the 
grace of God's gifts diminished from such as by faith 
and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministered unto 
them, which be effectual because of Christ's institution 
and promise, although they be ministered by evil men." 
(Article XXVI.) 

Such are some of the precautions taken to secure, as 
far as human judgment can discern, men qualified by 
grace and gifts for the ministry ; and at the threshold 
of their entrance upon it they are thus addressed : 
" Have always therefore printed in your remembrance 
how great a treasure is committed to your charge." 
In what, then, does the great, may we not say awful, 
responsibility of the ministry really lie ? It lies in 
this : that to the minister of Christ is confidently, as 
well as authoritatively, entrusted the care of the spiri- 
tual guidance, shepherding, and welfare of immortal 
souls. He is not by constraint, but by choice, not by 
any compulsion, but of his own free will, a messenger, 
watchman, steward of the Lord. He is to teach and 
to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family; 
to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad, 



478 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

and for His children who are in the midst of this 
naughty world, that they may be saved through 
Christ for ever. The Church of God has been 
purchased with the blood of His dear Son, and, to 
estimate the responsibility of the ministry, we have to 
" print in our remembrance that to us is entrusted the 
care of immortal souls." " All souls are mine," is a 
text to which I have often thought we ought to give 
prominence : it should be on our study wall, that the 
eye may rest upon it when we are preparing for our 
public ministration ; it should ever be in our remem- 
brance, wherever our lot is cast, whether amongst the 
cultured and refined classes, or amongst the illiterate 
and degraded. i( All souls are mine." And as each 
one committed to us has a soul to be saved, to be 
plucked as a brand from the burning, the salvation of 
each separate soul depends largely, humanly speaking, 
on the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of our ministration, 
God is pleased to use human instrumentality in connec- 
tion with the carrying out of His Divine purpose toward 
mankind. He might have created a new race, and 
thus superseded the race fallen from righteousness. 
He might have saved a fallen race without the inter- 
vention or co-operation of any instrument ; but it is 
in the kingdom of grace as in every department of 
creation — God uses means towards the accomplish- 
ment of His will. Ours is at once the privilege and 
responsibility of being fellow-workers with God. To 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 479 

each soul we are a savour of life unto life, or of death 
unto death. Every sermon we preach furthers a soul's 
salvation or increases its condemnation. Every pri- 
vate monition, as it is received or rejected, is helpful 
to the spiritual life, or makes its growth less possible ; 
for the judgment day is being every day rehearsed, 
and is now being carried out, either in the adding 
daily to the Church of such as shall be saved, or in 
the condemnation of the reprobate ; either in the seal- 
ing of the elect, or in the branding of the lost. How 
grave, how momentous, therefore, our work, when we 
set before us, calmly and distinctly, the issues for weal 
or woe, w T hich may hang on our ministry ! And this 
the more so when we remember that the laity are, as 
a rule, very dependent on the recognized ministers of 
religion for instruction in things spiritual. It is now 
as it has ever been. Men have been set apart from 
their fellow-men for the definite and distinct work of 
the sacred ministry ; and with comparatively rare ex- 
ceptions, the mass of the laity look to the clergy for 
spiritual instruction and guidance, as we look to a 
physician for medicine, to a lawyer for counsel. The 
very distinctness of our office, the peculiar character 
of our vocation, the recognised authority of the 
ministry, the assumed or allowed superiority in the 
knowledge of God's Word, and that deference to our 
sacred calling which the laity spontaneously accord, 
and only reluctantly cease to pay, — all this establishes 



480 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XIX. 

an especial claim on us in their estimation ; it makes 
them quick to notice where we fall short of their ideal 
of the ministry, and equally quick to appreciate and 
commend whenever we in any measure realize what 
they not unnaturally look for at our hands. To a 
certain extent, of course, the responsibility of which I 
am speaking is, and must be, limited. If a clergy- 
man felt that he would, at the great judgment day, 
be held responsible altogether and entirely for the 
eternal state of every soul committed to his care, I 
venture to doubt whether the men would be found 
who would take holy orders, and with holy orders so 
tremendous a responsibility. We cannot imagine, 
consistently with the fact of our free will to choose or 
refuse, that God would regard us as responsible for 
some soul toward which, according to the best of our 
knowledge, and with prayerful desire, we had been 
true and faithful ; in whose case no means under Him, 
in our power, had not been tried and tried in vain, 
There are in every parish, in every congregation, those 
who hear and do not obey ; no saving impression is 
made. The word falls on stony ground. The heart 
remains unrenewed, and therefore the life continues 
unaltered. You preach repentance, but they do not 
repent. You preach the need of faith but they do 
not believe. You warn them that this is the day of 
grace and opportunity, but they take no warning; you 
tell them God offers us salvation as a free gift, but 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 481 

they stretch out no hand to accept or appropriate this 
gracious offer. It is not your fault — it is entirely 
their own — if they are not saved. It is not the 
happiest view of the ministry, it is not even amongst 
its consolations, that in the twofold exercise of the 
ministry the justice of God is being vindicated as well 
as His mercy manifested, and the judgment day being 
rehearsed ; for who would not rather know that he 
had been instrumental in saving and not condemning ? 
Yet we must not forget that we are here to do the 
will of God, and not our own, and thus a lost soul 
may be as great, though unwelcome, a proof of our 
faithfulness as a soul saved. When we can con- 
scientiously say that no means on our part has been 
wanting, no persuasion, no pleading, no prayer, but 
that in season and out of season we have sought 
unsuccessfully to convert a sinner from the error of his 
ways, saddening as the thought must be, yea, almost 
overwhelming, still we cannot but feel that results rest 
with Him in whose hands are the issues of life and 
death, and that the faithful servant of Christ will not 
be held responsible for the wilful unbelief and persis- 
tent indifference which has brought about in the end 
the ruin of a soul. But this is a marginal thought. 
It seems to me that the very idea that we may, under 
God, be instrumental in the perdition of a soul, so far 
from being one from which we should extract conso- 
lation, should the rather spur us on to increased 

3* 



482 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

earnestness, and quicken us to a more devoted effort 
to win souls to Christ. But, ¥ oh ! how quickened 
would our zeal be, how devoted our labours, how 
oblivious of self, how full of the cross our life, how 
should we lay that cross on personal tastes, favourite 
pursuits, and even innocent amusements, if we had 
" printed in our remembrance " that time is short 
and eternity is long ; if we set before us vividly the 
earnest realities of heaven and hell ; if we believed 
with the whole strength of personal conviction that 
the opportunities of salvation are bounded by the 
grave, that death sets the seal to our probation, that 
there is no second Calvary, no cross with our crucified 
Jesus lifted up in the place of torment, no renewed 
opportunity reserved for those who have despised the 
opportunities of this present life and received the 
grace of God in vain ! What life it would impart to 
our prayers, to our exhortations to repentance, to our 
pulpit utterances, and to every sermon ! what weight 
it would give to every rebuke or godly admonition, if 
with our whole soul, without mental reservation, and 
therefore not with faltering tongue, we believed in 
eternal life and everlasting death, and with that 
earnestness which has been defined "as the peculiar 
power of making oneself believed by others," we 
preached the truth ! Too many preach truth as if it 
were fiction : the result is, the hearer is not convinced, 
because he is not assured that the preacher is himself 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 4S3 

convinced ; and until our people are satisfied that 
we are ourselves preaching from experience, and our 
utterances have in them the ring of conviction, we 
shall never bring them to the great end of preaching ; 
we shall never lead them to heart-searching, and to 
that awakened solicitude which finds vent in the cry, 
"What must I do to be saved ? " 

This therefore brings me to say, that of the three 
particulars in which the responsibility of the ministry 
mainly consists, we put first and foremost, not sacra- 
ments, which edify but do not awaken, but the 
faithful preaching of the pure and unadulterated gospel 
of Jesus Christ. And what do we understand by this 
— by that message which God has promised to own 
and bless, and which wherever delivered is accom- 
panied with His blessing ? It is the lifting up of 
Christ to the eyes of perishing sinners, the setting 
forth of that finished work on the cross which no 
merit of our own can claim or procure, and no work 
of our own can appropriate. It is to insist, as God's 
Word insists, on the radical corruption of human 
nature, the universal guilt of man, the doom which 
awaits him if unsaved, his lost state out of Christ, 
the awful fact that until he is reconciled to God in 
Christ Jesus the wrath of God abides upon him. It 
is to proclaim the love of God manifested in the gift 
of His dear Son ; His willingness that all should be 
saved and come to the knowledge of the truth ; that 



484 H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

salvation is offered without money and without price 
as the free gift of God ; and that on whosoever 
believes there is bestowed the gift of " eternal life," 
& present salvation by which we are delivered with a 
threefold deliverance from the guilt, dominion, and 
love of sin. It is to teach that we work from life, 
and not for life ; that we are saved that we may 
work, and do not work that we may be saved ; that 
our way is from the cross, and not to the cross. And 
that this may be realized, what need is there to insist 
upon the work and office of the Holy Ghost, Who 
rules this present and last dispensation ; that as " no 
man can call Jesus the Lord but by the Holy Ghost/' 
so- it is His work to convince of sin, and through 
conviction of sin to convince of righteousness ! We 
have to press this on men, — that the repentance 
and faith promised for them in their baptism must 
be consciously and personally exercised, as no god- 
parent could exercise it for us ; that as we act on the 
godly motions of the Spirit given to us at our baptism, 
we fulfilling our part in bringing the infant to Holy 
Baptism, and God fulfilling His part in receiving and 
blessing, we are led on to that crisis in the soul's life 
which is called conversion, in other words the com- 
plement of baptism, and thus conscientiously fulfilling 
the condition on which God bestows salvation, we 
accept Christ, so that He is " in us the hope of glory "; 
and, enabled to say, " It pleased God to reveal His 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 485 

Son in me," we have within us the earnest, if we 
persevere, of final salvation. I say it here, and say it 
with the voice of one who often asks forgiveness for the 
imperfect teaching of a large period of his ministry, 
that, to my own mind, it is in the tone of our message, 
the character of our preaching, the statements we make 
in the pulpit, the views we propound from Sunday 
to Sunday, and the general burden of our discourses, 
that much of the responsibility of the Christian 
ministry lies.' Few men and women inquire for 
themselves. Their faith is second, not first-hand. 
They take on trust what they hear from our lips, 
unless the statement be extraordinary or so eccentric 
as to provoke discussion. They assume that questions 
of theology, practical or speculative, we have made 
our metier and study. They regard us as their 
spiritual pastors and teachers. In some cases the 
recognition of our office, of which I have already 
spoken, in other cases tacit acquiescence in what they 
hear, indolence of mind, dislike of the trouble of 
thinking, predisposes our people to that implicit 
dependence on us for instruction in the way of life 
which makes the ministry so grave, so responsible a 
trust. For let men say what they please of preaching 
— let the man of letters criticize, and the cynic laugh 
to scorn — let the shallow sceptic ridicule, and the 
unbeliever deride it, it is now, as it has ever been, the 
great instrument under God for the awakening, con- 



486 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

version, and edifying of His people. Sacraments do 
not do the work of preaching. " Faith cometh by 
hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The 
word of the living God preached, the truth as it is 
in Jesus heralded in m momentary dependence on the 
accompanying power of the Holy Ghost, arrests, 
arouses, persuades ; and when that message is de- 
livered in its simplicity, when, after much secret 
prayer that we ourselves may be taught of God, we 
go fresh from our study to our pulpit, from our knees 
before God to face our people, from communing with 
Him on the mount to return with the testimony, our 
face shining as it were with a glory which the people 
see, then we may humbly hope that this exercise of 
the ministry as often as the occasion presents itself 
has been exercised under a deep and powerful sense of 
its high privilege, as well as of its great responsibility. 
But what need of secret prayer, if we would have 
the open reward ! It is told of a clergyman whose 
ministry was greatly blessed, that he observed a stone- 
breaker on his knees by the wayside breaking stones. 
He asked him why he knelt when he broke the 
stones. The reply was, " Sir, I find I break stones 
best when kneeling." He said to himself, "The 
stone-breaker has taught me a lesson. If my preach- 
ing is to be more heart-breaking and soul-convincing 
I must make my sermon more a matter of prayer; 
I must be more on my knees for my people." And 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 487 

if God does not always give us to see the open 
reward of secret prayer, if we do not see the word 
confirmed with signs following, if one must sow and 
another reap, one must toil in faith and another enter 
on his labours, yet I know few such legitimate sources 
of satisfaction to the mind of one yearning over souls 
and deeply impressed with the solemnity of his office, 
as that which God allows us to feel when, descending 
from a pulpit, we can say, " Thank God I have not 
been preaching myself, but preaching Christ. I have 
not been propounding my own views of truth, but 
the truth itself. I have not frittered away the golden 
opportunity in learned criticisms which do not touch 
the heart ; in elaborate disquisitions which may 
satisfy the intellect, but do not move the soul ; in the 
discussion of some knotty point which does not lead 
to prayer; in the enforcement of some tenet not 
essential to salvation. I have not preached a moral 
essay flavoured with Christianity, nor a gospel 
watered down to suit the palate of those who love 
God's promises, but dislike the threatenings of His 
law. I have not put a congregation to sleep with 
dull platitudes and with utterances which are like 
drops of opium on leaves of lead; but as one stand- 
ing between the living and the dead, as a dying m n 
to dying men, as ministering to those who may be 
in eternity before another sun has run its course, I 
have been " an ambassador for Christ," beseeching 



488 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

men to be reconciled to God ; as a steward of the 
mysteries of the kingdom dispensing the bread of 
life ; as a faithful shepherd feeding the flock ; above 
all, speaking in the name of my Lord, as if He were 
Himself amongst the hearers, and saying in His 
name, " Why will ye die ? " Ah ! if we realized what 
one once suggested to me — that our Lord Himself 
might be amongst our listeners, over-hearing and 
noting what we say, and how much of Him there was 
in our sermon — should we not also realize that the 
nature of our preaching had a foremost place amongst 
the responsibilities of the Christian ministry ? 

Next to the responsibility that rests on the general 
tenor of our teaching let me put the responsibility 
of the personal example of the minister of Jesus 
Christ. We must preach faith, and live morality. 
We may be earnest, energetic, eloquent, learned, 
benevolent, and good organizers ; but earnestness, 
eloquence, and energy are not holiness. They may 
be found united in one and the same man whose life 
is not " hid with Christ in God." There is a fami- 
liarity with sacred things which may be to any one 
of us a peculiar snare. Ministering habitually to 
others, we may get credit for a sanctity which may 
not belong to us. Preaching continually to others, 
men assume that we live up to what we preach, and 
our own hearts all the while may contradict this. 
Administering habitually the Holy Communion, we 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 489 

may be of those who least practise self-examination, 
and least exercise faith and charity. Our household 
may not be a pattern for others to copy. Our life 
may not be a mirror before which others may safely 
dress themselves. By our vocation we are publicly 
pledged to a devout life ; we are, as it were, so com- 
mitted to it by our vocation and public engagements, 
that our people naturally, and not unreasonably, look 
to us as patterns to copy and examples to follow. 
How different must be the whole character, mind 
outcome of the ministry, where a man only keeps up 
appearances which his heart and conscience belie, 
and that ministry which is exercised with a clear 
conscience before God, with few self-reproaches for 
inconsistency, and with a conscious sense of His 
favour, which no wilfully indulged sin or vicious 
habit is estranging from us ! The difference must be 
as great as the difference between working in the 
dark and working in the light. In the one case a 
sense of dtity is the utmost to which the man rises ; in 
the other case he has great joy in his work for his 
Master. If there be nothing distinct in our life, how 
can we hope to influence others ? More sinners are 
converted by holy men than by learned men. If we 
are worldly-minded, how shall we influence the 
worldly-minded ? If there be nothing separate and 
decided in our demeanour and deportment, in the 
society we seek, the books we read, the recreations 



490 H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

we prefer, how shall we ever impress others with the 
distinctness of our vocation ? The conduct we ex- 
hibit in the eyes of men becomes a pattern for 
them to follow. The lives of ourselves and of those 
around us must be so mixed up, in the esteem of 
men, with our doctrine, as to be taken by them as 
exponents of that doctrine ; and thus we are either 
lifting them up by our example to a likeness to 
Christ, or drawing them down by our unworthy living 
to a yet wider distance from Him. Every earnest, 
devout, humble, truthful, self-denying man is daily 
penetrating others with the brightness of his own 
life. Its secret influence steals upon us like the early 
dews of morn, as the fragrance of the honeysuckle at 
the open lattice ; like the shadow of St. Peter, it 
heals where it falls. But what must be the effect on 
others where our life belies our preaching — where 
solemn ministerial acts are in any degree made less 
solemn because of him who officiates — where the 
people feel that he is doing that with which his 
life does not accord ? The clergy enjoy little or no 
privacy. Our life, therefore, is a short sermon. 
" Longum iter est per prsecepta, breve et efficax per 
exempla." The rhetoric' of a holy life tells and 
persuades. Men are still won by those who have 
themselves been won. There are all around us those 
whose interest it is to endeavour to prove Christianity 
untrue. The reason of this is plain : it so condemns 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 491 

them. How quick are such as these to detect the 
difference between professional declarations and a 
consistent walk ! If there be carelessness, remissness, 
want of downright heart in the ministerial life, can it 
fail to harden in sin all those who, while not really 
doubting Christianity, are ever trying to combine 
enough of it to quiet conscience with a worldly, irre- 
ligious life. If our words awaken apprehension, the 
inconsistent life may lull this apprehension on the 
part of our hearers to rest ; and oh, the snare of 
securing what is called " popularity " by being no 
pattern ! Open sin would shock and disgust. We 
should forfeit character, and be no pattern. But the 
world loves that easy-going and respectable worldli- 
ness which, so far from stirring conscience and 
awakening souls, makes it more easy for its votaries 
to veil over the sharper and severer truths of 
Christian faith, and to combine a decently religious 
appearance with an inveterate and absorbing love of 
the world. There is, indeed, a preaching of almost 
any amount of Christian truth without stirring up 
Satan, if the clergyman's life exhibit the unhappy 
union of theoretical excellence w ; th decent, common- 
place behaviour. Such a life excuses, if it does not 
justify, their own, and they will gladly let us preach 
as we like, if only we will let them live as they like. 
So confessed is it, so self-evident, that we must 
" adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things/' 



492 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

and recommend what we teach by the lustre of our 
own example, that whilst we rank it high amongst 
the responsibilities of the Christian ministry, we can 
but pray God that He would evermore inspire us 
with a sustained spirit of watchfulness, with that 
habitual self-restraint which takes the form in one case 
of a temperate use of His creatures, in another of a 
restrained and moderate enjoyment of life ; and that 
ours may be a holy fear of doing anything by which 
the ministry might be blamed, and occasion given to 
the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. The worldly 
society in which we are seen to mingle, the tone of 
our conversation, the evident ambition, which, while 
it does not carry its mark of disgrace upon it like 
many open sins, spoils the finest character, and ex- 
tinguishes the spirit of grace ; the notorious love of 
the world in any one form ; the worldliness of our 
families, the sanction we give to our children to go 
where we feel our character would be compromised 
or influence weakened were we to accompany them ; 
the light in which we are regarded as pleasant com- 
panions, entertaining guests with a fund of jest and 
joke ; the passionate exclamation, the quick or sullen 
temper, the harsh, unkind, or ungenerous action : O 
the injury that this may do to the cause of Christ ! 
the blighting glare of unreality it may cast over 
the most zealous services in the more direct work of 
the ministry ! Surely, when we remember Whose we 



LECT. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 493 

are and Whom we serve, we need to question our- 
selves in this wise : " Am I a light-bearer shining on 
other hearts ? Am I as salt, salting what is corrupt 
around me ? Am I, under God, raising all around me 
to a higher and a holier standard, or am I furthering 
and encouraging those mutual concessions and com- 
promises which, however they may for the time lull 
conscience to rest, are but anodynes, which, when 
their effect is over, discover to us that the mischief 
is still there? O for the spirit of all grace and all 
purity and all power ! O for the Holy Ghost, with 
His sevenfold gifts, the blessed unction from above, 
and for that decision for God which saves us from 
allowing human opinion to be our standard, or 
perilous popularity our aim, but enables us to make 
the Word of God our rule and His favour our one 
desire ! 

And yet once more. After the nature of our 
preaching, and our personal example, may we not 
add this — thorough devotedness to our work ? " For 
God's sake," wrote Fenelon to one about to be con- 
secrated a bishop, " do not do your work by halves." 
How grave an injury may be done to the Lord's 
work if we do it perfunctorily, where it is evident the 
man's heart is not in it, and his work is not his joy ! 
How frequent our Lord's warnings against putting 
the hand to the plough and looking back ! How 
earnest the emphatic words, " He that would come 



494 HO MILE 1 ICA L LECTURES. [Lect. XI X 

after me must take up his cross and follow me" 
How the Masters mind and spirit animated His 
servant St. Paul, and how he impressed on his 
deacon, " Give thyself wholly to these things " ! There 
is a large class of minds who appreciate devotion to 
work. They cannot tolerate or believe in a drone. 
Accustomed themselves to habits of industry — some 
having amassed fortunes, under God's blessing, by 
diligently attending to their business — they are im- 
patient of any man who takes a work, sacred or 
secular, in hand, and does that work carelessly, and 
with no heart in it ; and often where you fail to per- 
suade them by your preaching, you command their 
respect by your evident devotedness, and this pre- 
pares the way for a more ready reception of the 
words spoken. They feel the man means what he 
says — that he is thoroughly in earnest. What would 
be said of a lawyer who frittered away his time, or 
spent it in pursuits not appertaining to his profession ? 
What would be thought of a physician who was seen 
idling his time ? Ought we to hear the comment, 
" He is hard-working," or " He is over-working," as if 
it were the exception and not the rule ? Should not 
earnest work be so natural to our vocation as not to 
arrest attention and excite comment ? It is devotion 
to work that tells. We are not ordained, set apart, 
called to the ministry, that we may be speculators in 
the money-market, luminaries in the world of letters, 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES, 495 

antiquarians, gardeners, sportsmen, judges of horses 
and wines, authorities in games of chance and skill, 
good boon companions ; but we are called to the 
ministry for a work as high as it is distinct : to be in 
season and out of season devoted, counting nothing 
dear to ourselves ; to be free of access to our people, 
ready to sacrifice our own leisure, and forego our own 
fireside comfort ; to be diligent in visiting the sick 
and the whole ; to present a familiar face in our 
schools ; our sermons not stale, or disguised under 
another text, but warm and hot from the anvil of 
thought ; coming before our people, not thinking all 
the time we are preaching, " Will they detect an old 
sermon here ? " but speaking to them fresh from our 
knees, and with words inspired by God the Holy 
Ghost. Oh, the difference loving our zvork makes ! 
and how soon it is discovered, and yet perhaps too 
late for retreat, whether a man has taken holy orders 
from a wrong motive or a right motive; whether 
because a family living awaits him, or because he 
yearns to win souls to Christ ; whether because he 
is a younger son, and nothing else seems open to 
him, or because, John Baptist-like, or Timothy-like, 
or Cecil-like, or Mackenzie-like, he has been raised 
up by God out of a family of sons and daughters to 
do the Lord's work, and, dedicated to the Lord in 
baptism, the Lord has accepted the parents' gift, and 
is using him in His service ! It makes all the dif- 



496 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

ference, and a difference that tells more and more 
every year. I do not doubt that there are cases to 
be met with of men forced into holy orders, persuaded 
against their inclinations, whose instinctive conviction 
of unfitness or disqualification has been wrongly 
overruled, who buckle themselves earnestly to their 
work, and feel that it is theirs to do, and whom a 
strong sense of duty keeps up to the mark. But it 
is, for all that, against the collar — it is contrary to the 
grain ; it is not the effort of one who loves his work, 
and yet loves his Master more ; to whom the Sunday 
ministrations are not a weariness, but a delight ; 
who rejoices in every opportunity of speaking for his 
Master ; who asks not How much must I do ? but 
How much may I do ? who feels that time is short, 
and opportunity hurrying by, and would "redeem 
the time" ; who is happy in his schools, happy in his 
Bible-classes, happy with a healthy and sanctified 
joy in the consciousness that God is using him to the 
good of others. It is this devotedness which affects 
the whole ministerial life in all its details ; as the sun 
in the heavens, it shines on hill and valley. 

It tells on our habits of life. I have great faith in 
early rising. It tells on our methodical division of 
our day. We shall not think of appropriating any 
time to ourselves, if by a different application of it 
we may use it better. Cecil says, " The devil does 
not care how ministers be employed, so long as it is 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 497 

not in their proper work." It tells upon our read* 
ing ; varied as our reading may be, and ranging over 
many departments of knowledge, we convert our 
reading into theology, and so study that we may use 
our knowledge in our pulpit ; for there is a great 
difference between foolish preaching and the foolish- 
ness of preaching. Ours should be a well-stored 
mind, and not an empty mind, if we are to command 
the attention of the educated classes, and not to 
starve the uneducated. 

Devotedness will tell in our pastoral 'visits ; keeping 
our ministry in view, we shall find not unfrequently 
that one pastoral visit, wisely and truly used, does 
more than many sermons. None are more surprised 
than the laity if a clergyman call, and there be nothing 
distinct in his visit from that of worldly friends. 
Tjhey with difficulty persuade themselves that it is 
the same man who spoke so feelingly and earnestly 
on Sunday. We should keep a note-book by us, and 
there record for our use the experience we gain 
by intercourse with the world. "Arguments," says 
Fuller, " are the pillars of sermons, illustrations are 
the stained-glass windows." There is no such mate- 
rial for sermons, next to God's own Word, as the 
book of the human heart. If pastoral visiting will 
fill a church, it is the experience of life we gain by 
pastoral visiting which gives life to our preaching ; 
the hearer feels we are not dreaming, but thinking, 

32 



498 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

and there will be that ring in our utterances which 
will carry conviction home to the heart, because the 
human heart, with its aches and pains, its needs and 
longings, is everywhere much the same. It is very 
easy to detect in preaching whether a man be venti- 
lating some favourite theory, or dealing with the 
facts and workings of our mysterious and chequered 
spiritual life. 

Devotedness will tell in the very character of his 
recreations and amusemeitts. He will make all these 
conscientiously subordinate to his calling. There 
may be many things as lawful to him as to others, 
but they are not expedient. There is no arguing 
about it. They are not expedient, and that ought to 
be enough for him. God never honours a compro- 
mising spirit. Every degree of love of the world is 
so much taken from love to God and the heart's 
allegiance to Him. What influence can a clergyman 
have who is seen in the hunting-field, or playing 
cards, or frequenting a theatre, or pirouetting in 
a ball-room ? Would he desire to be summoned to 
the exercise of his sacred office from such incon- 
gruous scenes to one suddenly overtaken with death, 
or to minister in the sick room, or to speak words of 
peace to a soul trembling in prospect of eternity ? 
I trow not. The esteem or friendship of the world 
may be gained, but it will be at the cost of the 
gravity and dignity of his office, and assuredly of his 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 499 

own spirituality. We cannot afford to lower the tone 
of our life, nor do anything by which the mind parts 
with spirituality. 

Devotedness will have to do with our personal 
habits, with the plainness and simplicity of our fare, 
and the avoidance of ostentation at home, even to 
the details of our dress. A soft, effeminate clergy, 
vying with the efforts of the wealthier classes, self- 
indulgent epicures, particular to a degree about their 
tables, and vain in their personal appearance, — this is 
different from a love of order and habits of neatness 
not to be despised or condemned. I knew of a 
clergyman who led the fashion in dress, and never 
sat down in the trousers in which he walked, lest the 
set at the knees should be spoiled ! And what are 
we to say of those advertisements for curates and for 
curacies in which honest hard work, and a sphere in 
which a man may gain rich experience, is not the 
encouragement held out, but rather " light work," 
" good society," or " a pleasant neighbourhood," is 
the bait to lure, or the condition looked for ? Such 
advertisements reflect but little credit on those who 
insert them ; they indicate a very low view of the 
Christian ministry. It is not ivork that hurts men : 
it is idleness that harms. Idleness is the fruitful 
source of countless temptations. And the men who 
have been, and are, the happiest and the healthiest 
are the men who do not count work drudgery. 



500 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX 

For us it is to set before us our Master's example, 
Who spared not Himself for us ; Who knew no 
confusion or impatience in His work, Who secured 
jealously His seasons of self-recollection and pauses 
for prayer, and Whose meat it was to do the will of 
God. His motto was, " Are there not twelve hours 
in the day ? " and those twelve hours found Him 
unresting and full of blessed toil. His motto was, 
" The night cometh, when no man can work ; " and 
our night comes when the eye will be filled with 
darkness and the ear with dust. The standard of 
His ministry is the highest attainable : we can only 
set it before us as a copy and exemplar. 

"As plants or vines that never saw the sun, 
But dream of him, and guess where he may be, 
And do their best to get to him." 

The great thing for us is to be real. It is the de- 
cision of the heart that gives decision to the life. It 
is the devotion of the man who has felt the constrain- 
ing love of Christ which gives the tone to all his 
work. Decision for God — that consecration of body, 
soul, and spirit to Christ's service, which follows on 
a true conversion, and true Spirit-taught perception 
of the Saviour's love — is the secret of perseverance in 
well-doing ; it is the great safeguard against weariness 
or indolence, against any subtle thought of merit or of 
working for the sake of reward. Decision distinctly 



Lect. XIX.] MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES. 501 

for Him who has bought us with His precious blood 
will give the tone to our preaching; for it will 
prompt us to teach our people that we work from 
life, and not for life ; that we do not work that 
we may be saved, but that we are saved that we 
may work. Decision for Him will characterize the 
outward life in the eyes of the discerning world. 
Decision for Him will be of strength to us in that 
self-denial which is daily and hourly put to the test 
and strain. And the thought of the responsibility of 
the minister, occasionally and thoughtfully realized, as 
during a retreat, or on the anniversary of our ordina- 
tion, or on some Sabbath morning before we go forth 
to our public ministration, or before we go our round 
of pastoral visits, will surely bring us to our knees for 
ourselves, that Christ's strength may be made perfect 
in our weakness, that in all we do or say we may do 
all in the name of the Lord Jesus ; that we may have 
a single eye to God's glory, and may be the honoured 
and privileged instruments in increasing the kingdom 
of our Lord and Saviour. We shall be often praying 
for all needful grace and for an unction from above. 
We shall pray for ourselves, that after we have 
preached to others we ourselves be not cast away, 
that by our example we may not have given the 
enemies of the Lord occasion to blaspheme ; and 
that by our devotion to our work we may magnify 
our office. We may faintly imagine what the reward 



502 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XIX. 

of faithful service will hereafter be, when we think 
of the joy we are now given to know when we 
have been allowed of God to help a soul out of dark- 
ness into light, — what the crown must be in heaven, 
if a happiness the world knows not of be our experi- 
ence here. And so in the words of an old writer we 
close: "Commit the matter to God. Wait patiently; 
get a feeling of the compassion of Christ, and die 
praying, ' Lord, pity Thy people.' " 

" Give me the Priest these graces to possess ; 
Of an Ambassador the just address, 
A Father's tenderness, a Shepherd's care ; 
A Leader's courage, who the cross can bear ; 
A Ruler's awfulness, a Watcher's eye, 
A Pilot's skill the helm in storms to ply ; 
A Fisher's patience and a Labourer's toil, 
A Guide's dexterity to disembroil ; 
A Prophet's inspiration from above, 
A Teacher's knowledge and a Saviour's love. 
Give me in Him a light upon a hill, 
Whose ray that whole circumference can fill. 
In God's own Word and sacred learning versed, 
Deep in the study of the heart immersed ; 
Who in sick souls can the disease descry, 
And wisely fit restoratives apply ; 
To beautiful pastures lead his sheep, 
Watchful from hellish wolves his fold to keep." 



BY THE REVEREND EDWARD HOARE, M.A,, HONORARY CANON 
OF CANTERBURY, AND VICAR OF HOLY TRINITY, TUN- 
BRIDGE WELLS, KENT. 



XX. 

THE RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 

IN our study of the results of the ministry it must 
be clearly understood at the outset that we are 
not to be dependent on results for the motive power 
of our work. That must be a matter of principle, 
and it must be perfectly clear to our own mind that, 
whether or not we see results, the call of the Lord is 
the same ; and it is that call from Him which has 
placed us, and daily maintains us, in our ministry. 
We send out missions, for example, not in conse- 
quence of the number of converts that have been 
saved from either Jews or Gentiles, but because we 
have the Lord's command, " Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature;" and if 
there had never been a single convert, that command 
would remain the same. 

But, though we are not to be dependent on visible 
result, we are most undoubtedly to look for it ; and 
if we do not receive it, the want of it ought to occa- 
sion very great searchings of heart. There is no 
labour carried on in life without the expectation of 



506 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

results. Is there a merchant in London who would 
go daily to his office if he did not expect to make a 
fortune, or, at all events, secure a maintenance ? Is 
there a farmer in England who would continue to 
cultivate his land if he had no expectation of a crop ? 
Is there a fisherman in the world who would per- 
severe in his fishiqg if he knew perfectly well that 
there were no fish in the pond, or, at all events, that 
he had not the slightest hope of catching them ? 
And is the work of a clergyman to be an exception to 
the universal rule ? Is he to be the only merchant 
seeking goodly pearls, and never finding them? — 
the only husbandman sowing good seed, and never 
reaping a harvest ? — the only unsuccessful fisherman, 
whose toil is never rewarded, and whose nets are 
never full ? Is he, who above all other men has the 
special promise of the accompanying presence and 
power of the Lord Himself — is he to be the only 
workman who is to expect his labour, even though 
it be in the Lord, to be in vain ? Christian faith, 
as well as common sense, agree in rejecting such an 
idea ; and if there be any living man who may go 
forth to his labour day by day perfectly certain of his 
results, it is the man who is called by God, sent forth 
to the work of God, accompanied by the Spirit of 
God, entrusted with the ministration of the Word 
of God, and assured by God Himself that His word 
shall not return unto Him void. Surely such an one 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 507 

stands out above all other men, encouraged by Divine 
authority to work on in joyful hope, with perfect 
confidence that God will give result. 

Nor is this result to be either unseen or invisible. 
I know there are cases in which it pleases God in His 
own Divine wisdom to withhold from some of His most 
devoted servants the unspeakable joy of perceptible 
results ; and I cannot forget those words written pro- 
phetically of our Lord's own work amongst the Jews — 
" I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength 
for nought and in vain." I know also that a large 
portion of the very best result is from its very nature 
invisible to the eye of any man. I am aware also 
that God may allow years to pass before the result 
is brought to the knowledge of the labourer ; and I 
have myself had the joy of meeting with delightful 
instances of most sacred results, in which I have 
known nothing of the parties, and never so much as 
heard of their existence, till more than ten, twenty, 
and thirty years after they had been brought to God 
through my own ministry. 

But bearing in mind all this, I still maintain that 
we are not to suppose that we are to be always 
working in the dark. The normal state of things is 
that we should look for fruit, and find it. I do. not 
mean by this that we are to be always reaping and 
never sowing, but I do mean that we are not to be 
always sowing and never reaping. If we are sowing 



508 H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

good seed, and sowing it in the right way, it is both 
our privilege and duty to look out for the enjoyment 
of the harvest ; and I think we must also come to the 
converse conclusion, that if there be no harvest, and 
the seed show no sign of growth, there is serious 
matter for the gravest anxiety. Possibly the seed 
may not be pure ; possibly our mode of cultivation 
may be defective ; or possibly it may not be watered 
by the life-giving showers of the Spirit of God. In 
any case, there is grave reason for most searching 
inquiry as to our motives and our work. 

What, then, are the practical results that we ought 
to expect? and what should we do towards their 
development ? Let these be the subjects of our 
oresent study. 

In considering the results, we must remember at 
the outset that these results are of a very varied 
character. There is an infinite variety in the instru- 
ments which God is employing, and in the material 
on which they are employed. The razor, and the 
axe of the woodman, may both be made of the best 
tempered steel, but they are used for totally different 
purposes, and they produce totally different results. 
So in the ministry, the refined and thoughtful scholar, 
who is wounded in spirit by anything that grates on 
his cultivated taste, may be a different being to the 
fluent and ready evangelist, who goes straight at his 
mark, and never thinks about the mode in which 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 509 

truth is delivered/ if only it be carried home to the 
souls of men with power. Thus, though both are 
true men, and true servants of the Lord, it is not 
likely that the same results will follow from their 
ministry. 

So again, there is as great a variety in the material 
on which we are called to work. There are country 
villages and large towns, small congregations in which 
everybody knows everybody, and large congregations 
in which multitudes know nobody. There are in- 
telligent and highly educated gentlemen who are 
accustomed to form their opinions from books, and 
ill-educated people who depend almost exclusively 
on oral teaching. And all these varieties of character 
must produce variety in the form of the results. 
Suppose that the same truths are preached, and 
people brought to the same blessed Saviour through 
the teaching of the same Holy Spirit, the work will 
show itself in different forms in different characters. 
All will be saved in the same great salvation, all 
transformed into the likeness of the same Saviour; 
but they will not be moulded in the same mould, and 
the results will not be uniform. Of course some 
forms of result are much more frequently met with 
than others. Amongst the most common are the five 
following : — 

I. Influence. 

We all know too well the fatal influence of an 



510 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

inconsistent ministry, and the deadening influence 
of an idle one. But I am not speaking of that, but 
rather of the influence of good men. I fear we must 
admit that there are many who are very poor 
preachers, although they are good men. They are 
not what the poor sometimes call "good churchmen." 
They throw no life into the liturgy, and their minis- 
trations are sometimes so dull and lifeless, that if 
God did not take the text, and preach patience, as 
Herbert says, it is difficult to understand how the 
people could ever be kept together. In such cases 
it is almost impossible to look for any deep impres- 
sion on the souls of the people. The man in most 
cases never tries for it, and in many scarcely desires 
it. I remember one of that type saying to me that 
he should not like it at all if any one were to come 
to him in anxiety about his soul ; and you may be 
perfectly sure that when he felt that, he did not do 
much to awaken the sleepers. Now, such a ministry 
as that must be regarded as the lowest type of a 
good man's ministry. There is really nothing done 
to awaken sinners, or to lead on the people of God. 
But I cannot say even of it that there is no result. 
Many of those men are humble, pious, and consistent 
men. They preach by their consistency a great 
deal better than they do in their sermons, and by 
the felt power of Christian influence they frequently 
give a tone to the mind of a parish. They uphold 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 511 

the standard of right and wrong ; they are witnesses 
for God, and they are known to be so throughout 
the villages in which they live ; so that, being scat- 
tered up and down throughout the land, through the 
blessed instrumentality of a national Church they 
produce, in their measure, their result on the general 
tone of society. 

2. Organization. 

There are some persons who have a marvellous 
power of organization. They are always making 
plans, and often carrying them out with great 
efficiency. Their parochial apparatus is complete. 
Their churches are restored, and their services are 
in excellent order ; their schools are well conducted ; 
and there are clubs of all kinds in their parish — 
provident clubs, coal clubs, young men's clubs — in 
fact, a club for anything ; and you cannot watch the 
process without observing the great efficiency with 
which the whole machinery is conducted. Now, in 
such cases there is beyond doubt a result, the result 
of a complete apparatus, the result that above all 
others will attract the attention of the world. But 
does it follow that souls are saved ? May not such 
persons sometimes have too much reason to say at 
the end of their work, " Multum agendo nihil feci " ? 
Is it not just possible that the strength is being put 
into the machinery instead of into the work itself, 
and that the warning of the prophet is forgotten — 



512 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

" They sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto 
their drag " ? They are like persons who keep their 
boats and nets in excellent order, but not like fisher- 
men with their boat sinking or their net breaking 
through the multitude of fish. They are for ever 
painting their boats and rearranging their sails. 
They have everything ready to catch every kind of 
fish ; but they never launch out into the deep, and 
the result is that they are not fishers of men. Their 
plans are first rate, but where are the souls ? It is 
the good Christian, and not the good plan, that is 
the real result of the ministry of God. 

3. Instruction. 

It is one of the tendencies of the day to exalt 
impression above instruction, and there are multi- 
tudes who care much more for a sermon that will 
make them feel, than for one that will make them 
think, or that will leave any solid truth on their 
understanding. Now, let it not be supposed for one 
moment that I undervalue impressive preaching, 
for there is something inexpressibly melancholy in a 
cold, dry, didactic statement of those glorious truths 
that ought to fill the whole soul with overflowing 
emotion. What I contend for is, that impression 
and instruction ought to go together, and that a 
result of immense importance is attained, if good, 
solid, scriptural truth is driven as a nail in a sure 
place into the understandings of those that hear us, 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 513 

and if we send forth, either through our schools and 
Bible-classes, our theological lectures or our sermons, 
a body of persons well instructed in the truth of God. 
Such a result may never be known to the preacher, 
and is perfectly certain never to be alluded to in the 
pages of any revivalist newspaper ; but it is lasting, 
influential, and of unspeakable usefulness in the 
Church of God. I remember well that before I went 
to college I heard my dear friend, and at that time 
my tutor, the late Rev. Henry Venn Elliott, preach 
a sermon on the justification of Abraham. The 
framework of that sermon, and the appeals made 
in it, have long since passed away from my memory, 
but the solid instruction then conveyed has remained 
with me through life. It has helped to form the 
character of my whole ministry, and I have myself 
passed it on to hundreds of others, and know many 
clergymen who are now preaching it, having learned 
it from me, as I originally learned it from him. But 
he never knew till twenty-five years after he preached 
the sermon how deep his teaching had sunk into the 
understanding of his pupil. We must never there- 
fore undervalue instruction. We must thank God 
for those who are "apt to teach/' and who are called 
by His Spirit in our schools and various institutions 
to teach good, sound, scriptural theology ; and if in 
our ordinary ministry we are permitted to make a 
permanent lodgment of Divine truth on the mind, 

33 



5 1 4 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

we have to be most deeply thankful for the result 
of our work. I remember hearing one clergyman 
say of another, " I never hear him preach without 
gaining a fresh light on some passage of Scripture." 
No man could pay another a higher compliment; 
and the result of such teaching is the formation of 
a body of persons who form the mainstay of the 
Church of Christ, — persons who know the truth, and 
love it ; who can discern between truth and error ; 
who know what they believe, and why they believe 
it ; and who thus mix in society as the faithful, 
steady, unwavering witnesses for Christ. 

4. Edification. 

This is another result that can never be brought 
to any numerical test, but one that has the highest 
sanction of the Word of God. We are given as 
ministers " for the edifying of the body of Christ," 
and we are especially directed to " feed the Church 
of God, which He has purchased by His own blood/' 
It is perfectly clear, that if the body of Christ is 
edified, and the Church of God is fed, one result for 
which God has appointed us is attained. The people 
of God do not want to be always being converted, 
and the results of the ministry must not be always 
brought to the test of converting power. If faith 
is strengthened, if mourners are comforted, if the 
careworn are enabled to cast their burdens on the 
Lord, if Christians are incited to lead holy lives, if 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 515 

the love of the Lord Jesus is more and more shed 
abroad in the hearts of the people, if the spirit of 
prayer and thanksgiving increases, if zeal for the 
Lord's service abounds, so that a hearty missionary 
spirit grows up in a parish, and if dying persons 
are helped and upheld through the valley of the 
shadow of death, with the everlasting arms under- 
neath and their blessed Lord and Saviour with 
them every moment through the conflict, — I say, if 
God does all this, shall any man say there is no 
result ? These are results of the highest possible 
character — results that tend to raise our own souls 
by bringing us into the great realities of the life of 
faith — results so sacred and so holy, that those who 
know only the surface of things can scarcely look 
for them — results that require in the minister him- 
self a personal and intimate acquaintance with the 
Lord. 

In some respects these results may be considered 
the highest of any, for they are the most elevating, 
and are most concerned with the sacred intimacy of 
the soul with God. Any priest under the Levitical 
law might minister in the outer tabernacle, but the 
high priest alone could go into the holy of holies ; 
but now that the veil is rent in twain from the top 
to the bottom, the holy of holies is thrown open to 
us all ; and what can be a higher result than to be 
permitted to take some dear child of God by the 



Si6 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

hand, and by the power of the Holy Ghost so lead 
him in to the mercy-seat, that he may there remain 
face to face with the Lord Jesus, and there rest in 
the companionship of God ? Of course there is 
nothing in such a result that can be registered in a 
tabulated form, but there may be a reality about it 
that can never be mistaken ; and if God has been 
pleased in His boundless mercy to make use of us 
for its attainment, we may not have the same gifts 
which we see in others, but we have enough to fill 
our hearts with joy, and to send us forth in our 
work full of thanksgiving, full of trust, and full of 
hope. 

5. Conversion. 

And now I come to the last, or, as it might be 
considered, the first great result of the ministry — viz., 
the conversion of sinners ; a result which, according 
to the teaching of our blessed Saviour, occasions an 
increase even to the joys of heaven. This work of 
conversion will, of course, vary in form with the 
endless varieties of circumstance and character. But 
there are two great groups which appear to compre- 
hend most cases. 

First, there is the conversion of those who have 
the form of Christianity without any experience of 
its power; in other words, the conversion of church- 
goers. I am well aware that such a statement may 
startle some ; but to the students of Scripture there 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY, 517 

should be nothing strange in it, for our Lord Him- 
self applies to those who heard Him the words of 
the prophet — "This people draweth nigh unto me 
with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, 
but their heart is far from me ;" and surely if the 
heart is far from God, they need conversion. Nor 
are we to suppose that those words described 
merely a Jewish difficulty ; for it is one of the pre- 
dicted dangers of the latter days, that there shall be 
people " having a form of godliness, but denying the 
power thereof." To what extent such characters 
abound in our churches none of us know; but when 
we remember how many there are who are kept by 
their own conscience from attendance at the table 
of the Lord — how many secondary motives there 
are to induce a person to go to church with suffi- 
cient regularity to maintain his respectability — how 
many are present at church from habit, how many 
from education, how many from the simple effects 
of tradition — how many, to use their own expression, 
who make no profession, and how many who are 
living in the. world, and for the world, as entirely 
as if there were nothing but the world to absorb 
their thought, — it is altogether impossible to deny 
the overwhelming need of converting power even 
amongst those who have the form of godliness. 
Here, then, is one of the most blessed results of the 
ministry. I can imagine nothing more delightful 



5i S H0MILET1CAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

than to witness the transition from a state of 
hard, cold, lifeless form, to one of tenderness of 
heart and of warm and living faith. It is just like 
the change described in Ezekiel's vision of the dry 
bones. When bone had come to bone, and the 
skin had covered them, there was the complete 
form of the renovated man, but there was no life in 
them. They had the form of the perfect man, but 
not the life. But when the prophet prophesied to 
the wind, "the breath ,came into them, and they 
lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding 
great army." This is exactly the result that is 
taking place now to an incalculable extent. Nothing 
is more common than for persons to come to church 
cold, careless, and dead, with a Christianity that 
has consisted in nothing but externals, and never 
reached the secret springs of the soul, and to find 
through the sermon such a blessing to their souls 
that all things become new. There is a new under- 
standing, a new faith, a new love, a new joy, and 
a new life for the remainder of their days. It is 
obvious that such results as these cannot be brought 
to any numerical standard, for they do not involve 
any one outward act. The people have been 
baptized, confirmed, and in many cases have already 
been communicants. There is no definite ecclesi- 
astical act to mark the change. It is a change of 
spirit, not of form. It is not the creation of a new 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 519 

fabric, but the commencement of life in that which 
is already there. It is therefore utterly beyond all 
human calculation ; and the idea of counting up con- 
versions after a sermon or after a mission suggests 
the question whether those who do so really know 
what conversion means. We may count the number 
of baptisms, or the number of communicants ; but 
who can count God's hidden ones? and who can 
reduce to a statistical table the secret action of 
the Holy Ghost on the soul ? 

But there is another large class of conversions in 
which there is a much greater power of observa- 
tion. I mean the conversion of the openly ungodly. 
There are thousands and tens of thousands all around 
us who make no profession of religion. They are 
living without God in the world, as much as if they 
were in the heart of Africa. Some are professed 
infidels; but the majority do not think enough about 
it to adopt even a system of infidelity. They are 
living in what Charnock calls "practical atheism." 
In works they deny Him, if not in words. It is 
amongst such classes that we carry on what may be 
termed our missionary ministry. We must never 
forget the appalling fact, that while we are happily 
ministering amongst our large congregations in 
church, there are multitudes outside, and all around 
our own doors, who never bow the knee to God at 
home, and who never set their foot within His house. 



52o HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

Now, there cannot be a doubt that multitudes of 
such persons are being brought, in various places and 
various ways, one by one, to the great salvation ; and 
it is impossible to imagine a more glorious result of 
the ministry. A young curate, visiting from house 
to house, meets with a stubborn fellow, who tells him 
plainly that he believes in nothing. Within a twelve- 
month that curate has the joy of seeing that same 
man a devout communicant, a consistent believer, 
an active helper in every effort to spread the gospel 
in the parish. Is not that a result ? a result to bring 
joy in heaven — a result to fill the heart of that young 
curate with joy, and to send him on his way abound- 
ing with thankfulness and hope ? Now, such results 
as these are conspicuous. If the drunkard become 
sober, if the practical atheist become the habitual 
worshipper, if the avowed opponent become the 
loving friend, or if the man living in open ungodli- 
ness become the devout communicant, there is some- 
thing done that we can see, and the change is of 
such a character that, if it cannot be seen, we must 
conclude that it is not there. If the ungodly man be 
still ungodly, or the drunkard still living in drunken- 
ness, we cannot fall back for our comfort on the idea 
that we do not always see what is going on ; for 
we do see the absence of result, and the unchanged 
character of the man is a conspicuous fact that it is 
perfectly impossible to deny. The change, when it 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 521 

takes place, is immediately brought to the test of 
certain definite acts ; and when those tests are there, 
we may thank God for the great encouragement, and 
labour harder than ever, encouraged by the result 
which He has given. But when those tests are not 
there, we cannot comfort our hearts by the hope 
that there may be an unseen work in progress. In 
Elijah's time there were seven thousand of God's 
hidden ones, but they were all distinguished by the 
outw r ard fact that none bowed the knee to Baal. 

Such, then, are some of the results which God is 
most undoubtedly producing through the ministry. 
I do not pretend to say that they are all, or nearly 
so. Many will probably think of others which have 
been permitted to follow their own ministry, to which 
I have not alluded. My desire has been, not so much 
to exhaust the subject, as to maintain the principle 
that, as ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is both 
our privilege and duty to look for great results. 

I wish to hand down to others in this paper the 
lesson I learned in my first curacy. I was ordained 
to the charge of a fishing village in Suffolk, where 
my rector, the Rev. Francis Cunningham, to whom 
I owe more than I have any words to express, had 
been labouring for more than twenty years. That 
village, when he took the charge of it, had been 
utterly neglected. The people were a set of rough 



522 H0M1LETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

wreckers, and, if tradition were true, the previous 
rector himself had not been altogether indifferent 
to the spoil. But when I was ordained as curate 
to Mr. Cunningham, and went about from house 
to house as he directed me, I found there in the 
different cottages throughout the village a large 
body of persons who were, beyond all possibility of 
contradiction, the result of my rector's ministry. 
The whole tone of the village was changed ; and 
though there were still there those who looked back 
with regret to former times, there could not be the 
slightest doubt as to the fact that there were numbers 
of persons, both old and young, truly converted to 
God, and, as converted persons, adorning the gospel 
of their Saviour. It is said of Barnabas, that when 
he went to Antioch " he saw the grace of God." 
So when I went to that village, I could see the great 
work that had been wrought. As I went from house 
to house, I could see the difference between the two 
classes of characters. I saw there brave men who in 
their efforts to save life feared no storm, in childlike 
faith fearing God. I saw there devoted women 
adorning the gospel by their consistent lives. I saw 
well-ordered households, so beautiful in their cleanli- 
ness, and so fragrant with Christian happiness, that the 
effect on my own mind, when I went amongst them 
as a beginner, was to lead me to exclaim, "What 
hath God wrought ! " And yet there was nothing 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 523 

very remarkable in the Rector's talents. He was 
not distinguished as a preacher, or as a person of 
brilliant ability. But he was a true and faithful 
pastor, and he had a true and faithful wife, and I 
saw the result of their work. I cannot tell you how 
it was brought about. Probably some were brought 
to God through the wife, and some through the 
husband ; some through the school, some through 
the pastoral visiting, some through the cottage 
lecture, and some through the preaching in church. 
It all took place before my time, and was the result 
of a steady work continued for more than twenty 
years, so that I did not see the process. All I 
know is that the result was there. The means may 
have been various, and interlaced one with another, 
so as to render it quite impossible to say how much 
was owing to each instrumentality. But there could 
not be a doubt about the result. That was con- 
spicuous, and no one who knew the people could 
mistake it. 

Nor was it merely the result of a passing excite-, 
ment or personal influence, like the religion of Joash, 
which came to an end as soon as Jehoiada died. We 
all know the effect of time — how it thins our ranks 
and how it tests our principles. We know what 
forty-five years can do amongst a people. But it is 
forty-five years since my rector gave up the personal 
care of that parish, forty-two years since I went to 



524 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

it as curate. Now, I went this last autumn to pay a 
visit to that village. I went about amongst the 
old cottages, and there I found, after all these years, 
several of those dear people still surviving, and still 
standing fast in the Lord. Rector, after rector had 
come and gone ; but the rock on which they were 
built was immovable, and there I saw them abiding 
on the rock, unchanged and I believe unchangeable, 
because by God's grace they are preserved in Jesus 
Christ. 

But why do I mention this instance? Not because 
I believe it to be a special case, or anything excep- 
tional, for I could tell of numberless other parishes 
in which similar results have followed the ministry. 
I have mentioned it because it is my own fixed 
conviction that there was nothing exceptional about 
it, and that we ought all to be looking for similar 
results. I do not mean that every person is to look 
for results in the same form ; for, as I have already 
said, there must be varieties in the form of the work. 
There are some working amongst the delicate flowers 
of the garden, and some sowing corn in the ploughed 
field. So there are both sowers and reapers, some 
especially employed at the commencement, and 
some in the full development of the work effected. 
I fully admit all these varieties. But my point is, 
that, as we are doing the Lord's work, we have just 
as much right as my dear rector had to look for 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 525 

an equal result. God has said, " My word shall not 
return unto me void," and that promise relates to 
the word itself, without reference to any personal 
distinction. We may therefore go on our way full 
of hope, in the confident assurance that, whatever be 
our own particular department, we shall be employed 
by God Himself in bringing about the sacred, happy, 
most blessed result of a people made ready prepared 
for the Lord. 

But if such results are to be expected, and if the 
hope of them is clearly held out to us in Scripture, 
may I venture to make four suggestions with refer- 
ence to their attainment ? 

1. We must pray for it. Pray not merely for 
help in our work, and for Divine guidance in all we 
do, but definitely for result. The result that I have 
endeavoured to describe is the act of a supernatural 
power making use of natural instrumentality. The 
agent employed is a natural agent, a common man, 
just like his fellows ; and the instrument employed 
is a natural instrument — viz., man's power of per- 
suasion and instruction ; but the power that produces 
the result is a supernatural power — viz., the power of 
the Holy Ghost working in the soul. When St. Paul 
reported the results of his first missionary journey, 
he did not relate what he had done, or even what 
the Lord had done by them, but what God had 
done with them (/xer avrcov). He and Barnabas 



526 HOMTLETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

were labouring as God's servants, and God was 
with them as their companion, producing result. 
So when we are working to the best of our power, 
it is our privilege to be pleading with Him, as a 
companion present with us, to work with us, and 
produce result. 

2. We must work for it. 

I remember a remark by Bishop Perry, in, I think, 
his first charge in Melbourne, that in many sermons 
the preachers appear to have no definite object 
before them, and not to be aiming at any definite 
result. And certainly, if the preacher has a result 
in view, it is sometimes very difficult for the hearer 
to discover what it is. Some people seem as if 
they sat down to prepare a sermon without being 
able to look beyond the difficulty of completing 
it. They begin before they know what they are 
going to say, and the one result at which they aim 
is a manuscript of a certain length. Others will aim 
higher : some at producing something that will be 
popular, some at that which will be interesting, and 
some at that which will be beautiful as a composition; 
and they may all have their reward. But if we are 
looking and praying for the true result of the ministry 
— the salvation of souls — we must aim straight at it. 
We must not ''fight as those who are beating the 
air," but we must, settle thoroughly in our own mind 
what is the result that we desire to see accomplished ; 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 527 

and then, forgetting all besides, must keep the result 
steadily in view, and endeavour so to speak and so 
to act, that God, working with us, may be pleased 
to bestow it. It is a good thing to make it a 
rule when preparing a sermon to ask ourselves the 
question, What result do we expect to be produced 
through it ? If that question were always asked, it 
would tend to sharpen a good many arrows that now 
appear to have no point. 

3. We must prepare for it. 

I once met with a remarkable man who had been 
a great traveller, and had paid careful attention to 
the preaching of the gospel in different parts of the 
world ; and I asked him what he thought of the 
preaching of the gospel in the Church of England. 
His answer was very remarkable, and, as I thought, 
most instructive. He said he had met with no class 
of men who, on the whole, threw the net so well 
as the clergymen of the Church of England, but 
he knew of none who drew it in so badly. Surely 
there was truth in what he said ; for we have no 
system in the Church of England for the ingather- 
ing of the results. It really seems sometimes as 
if we did not expect them, for we certainly make 
no preparation for them. If, for instance, a person 
is awakened to a deep sense of sin, and is troubled 
at heart by the question "What must I do to be 
saved ? " what do we do for him ? Popery presses 



528 HOMILETICAL LECTURES. [Lect. XX. 

him to the confessional; the Wesleyan has a class- 
meeting ready for him ; the Primitive Methodist 
will urge him to the bench for the anxious; but 
we Churchmen are far too apt to leave him to 
wander about alone, unhelped and uncomforted, till 
he either wanders from our fold in quest of help 
which we fail to provide, or sinks back into a state 
of insensibility. Arnold said, in writing to Mr. 
Tucker, that he believed it was of the utmost im- 
portance that there should be a nucleus provided in 
every mission, to which converts might be attached 
like the snow to the snowball ; and the same is true 
of our parishes. If we expect results, we must be 
prepared to gather them ; if we expect to hook the 
fish, we must have our landing-net ready ; and if we 
expect an abundant harvest, we must not leave it to 
litter about in the field, but must be prepared with 
the garner in which the grain may be kept in safety. 
It is my own conviction that thousands are lost to 
the Church of England through the neglect of this 
principle. We pray for results, we work for results, 
we have results given us by God ; and then after 
all, when God has given them, we neglect to gather 
them, and, as far as we are concerned, they are 
lost. 

4. We must give thanks for what the Lord has 
done. 

It is the thankful spirit that is winsome to others, 



Lect. XX.] RESULTS OF THE MINISTRY. 529 

as it is the thankful spirit that glorifies God. If, 
therefore, we desire to be efficient winners of souls, 
and really to bring glory to God, we must not be 
afraid of recognizing the blessing which He has 
given, and of giving thanks for the results which 
He has bestowed. It has been said of congrega- 
tions, that a crowd draws a crowd, and the same 
may be said of results. Results produce results ; 
and the thankful happiness of a body of persons 
who are praising God for what He has done, is one 
of the most attractive instrumentalities that can be 
brought to bear on those who have not yet known 
the Lord. No one cares to be associated with 
those who are downcast, disheartened, and for ever 
complaining that there is nothing done. It is when 
we are able to see His hand working with us, and 
to say, " The Lord hath done great things for us, 
whereof we are glad," that we begin to look for 
still greater things to come. Thus expectation 
grows with the sense of thanksgiving ; and, coming 
before God with a thankful heart, we realize the 
truth of the promise, " Open thy mouth wide, and I 
will fill it." 

I may conclude with a siigiit expansion of a 
sentence which used to be hung up in the vestry 
of that revered rector to whom I have already 
alluded : " Pray for great things ; work for great 

34 



530 HOMILETICAL LECTURES, [Lect. XX. 

things ; prepare for great things ; but give thanks for 
what may seem small things, for they may be great 
when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, and 
they are the results of the great grace of a forgiving 
and forbearing God." 



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Mr. Gould have not previously been exposed : and a careful study and following of his sug- 
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language. 

"The concluding chapter of the book has been held by its critics and by clergymen to be 
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large proportion of surplussage, but Mr. Gould, in the brief compass of fifty page3, has said 
all that can be well said in the way of teaching by precept the Art of Elocution. Every theo- 
logical student, indeed every clergyman, young or old, should have the book." 



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